Reports from the University of Wyoming give detailed instructions and advice. These and other reports also provide needed information about how to measure and monitor the changes in ground water storage levels, usually with numerous small diameter plastic-pipe wells. Efforts by beavers are a little more sophisticated and their list of materials is different. Also, their instructions are harder to translate. However, both groups of builders find that structures work best when plant roots are encouraged to bind together the construction materials.
Beavers generally are willing partners on projects undertaken by humans, given the opportunity.
Gradually accumulated sediment behind the dams will raise the level of the streambed. Eventually high water flows can overtop the channel banks and begin spreading across the long-dry floodplain. The ground water table rises, and riparian vegetation reappears. How much water can be stored in the aquifer will depend on site characteristics. How fast this stored water returns to the stream channel depends on aquifer characteristics and how far this water is made to travel horizontally through the aquifer before it is allowed to reappear and join the surface flow.