Beavers, To let them be or get rid of them

[mike35mmnut]

I live in Southern Herkimer County and have 52 Acres and a nice pond.  I live at 1400' in the area that got all the flooding.  Although we did not have much of a problem with the flooding cause we live at the top of the hill, we did have a family of beavers move into my pond.  It took me a few days to realize they were there because we kept getting rain and thought maybe it was just flooding.  When new growth started to end up cut down and around my pond it became pretty clear that we had beavers.  After a night or two of watching they were easy to spot and honestly do not care much if I walk around the pond.

 

I started to Google for information and found out you need a permit to break any beaver damns or kill the beavers.  I also called the DEC in Utica and they told me most likely I am going to have to get rid of them.  That was about a week ago and I am going through the process to get a permit, but due to the limit sources for my pond and the fact it is always fairly close to the banks things have gone pretty much back to normal without doing anything.  The beavers have cut down some small trees around the pond and I have seen at least two of them in the pond, but that is the only thing they have noticeably done.

 

First with a permit, I have no problem shooting them and getting rid of them but if I do not need to then I see no reason to get rid of them.  Here is lays my question:  Since they can not flood massive amounts or anything that is not already wet what could go wrong if I leave them?  What are other people experience with them?  Is there anything else that I am missing? 

 

I have posted a picture of the pond so people can understand the area.  The bottom of the pond has an outflow and that is where it is damned and there house is somewhere in the wooded swamp at the top.  My lawn is to the left and a hay field is to the right.  At point point only the swamp is still wet but it is always wet and the pond is pretty much at normal levels for the amount of rain we have gotten.

 

I have no problem doing whatever but want to make an educated decision.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

[jr.deerslayer]

Well by the looks of it they'll be running out of food pretty quickly and will have to move on. My advice as long as there not hurting anyone is to leave them be. Beaver are interesting to watch as long as there doing no harm.  If they get to be a problem it would be easy to get rid of them quickly. 

[ncountry]

As long as you are not too attached to any of the trees and brush around the pond, let them stay. Jr is right it does not look too much feed for a beaver family.

[Renegade Hunter]

I personally would get rid of em! I have a family in my3 acre pond and a bunch of chopped down trees due to them! Pain in the arse! BTW is there a rule if your dogs get after the babies?? JW

[verminater71]

there's a lot of trappers in your area, wait till fall so there pelts are prime and let someone trap them, no waist

 

looks like a lot of trees on the north side of that pond, and they'll nock down a lot of trees, I have pics of a tree with a 30" diameter base taken down

 

it don't take long for 2 to become 10

[Doc]

So where did they come from? Is there a creek or river or swamp somewhere nearby? If so, you may find a perpetual source of these critters that you can't get rid of. It does look like there is a limited supply of food for them there, so they may start checking out your trees in your yard....lol.

 

They are interesting critters to have in the area, but they may find ways of irritating you .... ha-ha. That setting really doesn't look like ideal beaver habitat.

[Witty]

Get rid of them, they will destroy your property. I've seen it first hand. They turned a small creek into three large ponds and were taking down some pretty big trees. I don't know why any of you think there isn't much food there, I see a pretty large forest on the north end of that pond. They will float trees into it, we have seen them drag large trees from 100 yards on land to their dens.

[Water Rat]

You can live trap them if you don't wish to kill them.

[landtracdeerhunter]

Agree with Witty. Two beavers can also turn into 22 in a few years. Beaver pelts are waterproof. Make good  goretex hats.

[sssurfertim]

I personally like beavers, they turned a muddy marsh into a beautiful pond on my property years ago and we had lots of ducks and geese visiting. But someone asked if they could trap them and we said no. But the next spring there was not beavers anymore and now the pond has drained because of no maintenance on the beaver dams, we think the guy trespassed and trapped or shot the beavers because there were about 5 of them.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

The best beavers are the ones on someone elses property. If that woods to the north is yours they will take down trees for the tops. What kind of trees are to the north of the pond?

 

SSS-- if you had a group of juviniles move in and they set up home in a area that didn't end up supporting then due to limited food supply they will move on their own.

[mike rossi]

You probably spoke to Steve H. in Utica. What was the exact reason you were told that you are most likely going to have to get rid of them?

Although I am against beaver removal, I disagree that they do not sometimes flood large areas. You can also install water control devices to "trick" the beavers. The device will only allow the impoundment to get so big, but without the sound of running water the beavers will not plug it. This is not the same type of water control device used for wetland management, but one designed for beaver problems and operates to manage the size of the impoundment without removing it.

There are numerous benefits to having a beaver impoundment and besides trying to out work a beaver is not easy. If you remove all the beavers, it is very likely others will recolonize the general area anyway. Doc raised the issue of how they got there. Like muskrats and other aquatic/semi aquatic animals they not only travel small water courses, but also overland in search of water. Young beavers disperse when they approach sexual maturity and if water is there, they will find it. (You sound like you are well within a beavers reach from the West Canada Creek anyway, which is a constant source of beavers) And in the case of beavers, they will stop when they find an area they think they can neck down and has the right plants. You may be able to change the plants, but I don't think you want to widen the channel - which is doing the same thing the beavers are... Beaver trapping is rich in tradition, but require expensive,extremely large, heavy, dangerous, hard to set traps. The value of a beaver pelt is about the same as 2 muskrat pelts, but the price of traps is double or more, you can skin, flesh and stretch a dozen muskrat pelts in the time it takes to process one hard to skin, hard to flesh, hard to stretch beaver. And, you need a lot of space to hang those huge beaver pelts...

Edited July 30, 2013 by mike rossi

[Culvercreek hunt club]

You probably spoke to Steve H. in Utica. What was the exact reason you were told that you are most likely going to have to get rid of them?

Although I am against beaver removal, I disagree that they do not sometimes flood large areas. You can also install water control devices to "trick" the beavers. The device will only allow the impoundment to get so big, but without the sound of running water the beavers will not plug it. This is not the same type of water control device used for wetland management, but one designed for beaver problems and operates to manage the size of the impoundment without removing it.

...

Jordanville is a long way from the West Canada but there are numersous small streams up there. Mike- I Couldn't understand the bolded part

[mike rossi]

Jordanville is a long way from the West Canada but there are numersous small streams up there. Mike- I Couldn't understand the bolded part

I think beavers do much more good than bad, and are not worth the effort to trap them for profit. However, a small landowner might not wish to become a "water owner" or the water may enter roads, buildings etc. However, even in those cases, it is usually possible to use a "Beaver Deceiver" to keep the impoundment, but draw it back and prevent it from expanding again. Installing this kind of device isn't anymore difficult than removing the beavers, and then the dam (unless you are able to get a dynamite permit). Then after all that work, there is still a good chance other beavers will recolonize sooner or later, especially if the spot has the attributes beavers like, willows, alders,cottonwoods, poplars, aspens, and a narrow channel.

There are many links here are a few. Don't be put off by the pages by the HSUS, FFA, PETA, they didn't invent this, its just one of the things that biologists do that they like...

http://www.georgiawildlife.com/sites/default/files/uploads/wildlife/hunting/pdf/Game_Mgmt/Publications/ClemsonBeaverPondLeveler.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_device

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I understand you last post but still dont understand what the heck you wrote that I bolded.

 

Fur prices are actuall higher in the auctions that they have been in a while. I saw beaver prices  running averages from 40-70 and top market as high as 200.

 

[Doc]

I enjoyed the beavers that we had across the road. They created a pretty nice swamp that drew in just about every kind of walking, swimming and flying critter that you could imagine. A rather boring crick became a wildlife gold mine. However, they absolutely do need trapping. They are quite capable of eating themselves out of house and home and they will abandon areas that have become over-populated and where they have eaten everything that they can including new growth. That is what happened across the road and the colony moved out to better grounds. The dam has long ago deteriorated and all the critters that used to live there have followed the beavers.

[mike rossi]

I understand you last post but still dont understand what the heck you wrote that I bolded.

 

Fur prices are actuall higher in the auctions that they have been in a while. I saw beaver prices  running averages from 40-70 and top market as high as 200.

You know as well as me that nobody gets those highs. Rat highs were also reported at $40... Mink around $100. The average was probably like $8 for the best rats and maybe $55 for the best beaver. Your small, unprimed, or damaged fur bringing much less. Then subtract the NAFA or FH commissions... More money & less effort in $8 rats than $55 beaver.

An old beaver pond usually becomes a muskrat mecca anyway and can sustain a rat catch for years. Especially if it draws down and re-floods. When that happens the dormant seed bank of emergent plants (cattails, rushes, sedges) erupt and then so do the rats. Those water control devices can be periodically used to produce the same effect to maintain good rat populations. And when the cattails and other emergent get to dense for rats you can use the water controller to thin it to the liking of rats. More young beavers dispersing and creating more impoundments means more rats too.

[mike rossi]

In other words, a pair of beavers probably produces more muskrats than several pairs of muskrats do...

[Doc]

In other words, a pair of beavers probably produces more muskrats than several pairs of muskrats do...

That is absolutely true, and that is only a part of the benefits. What I have found is that a whole bunch of different species find beaver pond/swamps to be a virtual magnet. That is not just water related critters either.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Depending on the construction of the pond, though, muskrats can be a death blow to the berms. I have seen two fail because of rat tunneling.  if it is a fully dug pond it sin't an issue.

[mike rossi]

Depending on the construction of the pond, though, muskrats can be a death blow to the berms. I have seen two fail because of rat tunneling.  if it is a fully dug pond it sin't an issue.

I think muskrats can damage man-made berms or dikes, but don't have much of a chance with a beaver dam. Even if they manage to penetrate the logs, stones, brush and packed mud, the beavers will have none of it.

Erosion plantings on man-made berms help with the rats, but I think you are going to say next that the beavers will eat those plantings. If it was me, I wouldn't use a woody planting. I am not a fan of rip-rap (stone)either. One of the reasons we would build wetlands would be to trap rats, so have at it... If the beavers prevent erosion planting from establishing, trap them too, we like them when they build dams, not degrade them... If we left things alone, we would have enough natural wetlands and beaver ponds and wouldn't need to build artificial wetlands with berms & dikes anyway...

Edited August 2, 2013 by mike rossi

[asav2013]

trust me they will be a problem eventually, i have a swamp behind my house that i hunt that only has a small creek running through it ya coudlnt even get down with a kayak only reason it becomes a swamp is becuase of high rain falls, the beavers have screwed it up bad they have atleast 5-6 dams becuase beavers make secondary and third dams in case the main one breaks, the swamp is so flooded now ya need chest waders to get thrugh it and some that isnt even possible, the colony has gotten so big we trapped 6 of em out and it didnt even put a dent in the population and its getting worse,, it may be okay seeing yours is already a pond, but ours wasnt and it is now lol, if ya want them there i would keep track of them 3-4 of em aint so bad but when the population outgrows the area they live in other beavers will go up stream to make there own home and start there own familys,

[jjb4900]

If you ever wanted a trout pond on your property, here's your chance........and it may turn out to be a good spot for duck hunting as well.

[mike rossi]

You Betcha! Beavers will take a small trickle of water without much habitat significance and turn it into an oasis for a variety of fish and wildlife by building a series of 5 or more dams. They will raise young every year and boot them out the second year and so several miles away the impoundments multiply as well as the beavers, muskrats, water birds, fish, and herps.

Some of those dispersing beavers, muskrats, Canada geese, etc. might become nuisances elsewhere, and they can be dealt with elsewhere as well. The best management practice for the dispersing beavers, is the same as for the original beavers, a water control device or a "beaver deceiver". Best for two reasons. First and foremost is the ecological services derived. Second and least is there is a high rate of recolonizing after the original beavers are removed.