I've had a lot of experience with beaver ponds and in my opinion a beaver pond is consistently productive for about 4-5 years max.
In year one to year 3 it's extremely productive for wood ducks, greenwings, and the occasional mallard. After that it starts to decline and by year 6 you are lucky to hold 30 wood ducks.
My opinion is that whatever non-aquatic plants that were flooded hosted "new" foods (bugs, seed, etc) but once the habitat became permanently aquatic, those resources depleted. I've seen it happen with a half a dozen places.
While the thought to keep the Beavers is ok, I would suggest whacking them. They have already built your pond. Put a leveler in and drain every year, allowing those plants that drew them to grow again.
Beavers are great little critters, but they don't have duck ponds in mind...
Be proactive about improving public waterfowl habitat in South Carolina. It's not going to happen by itself, and our help is needed. We have the potential to winter thousands of waterfowl on public grounds if we fight for it.
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