Snow Equipment Owning/Operating beavers have cut down 4 trees this year

[MossRoad]

Fellas, just remember this is a family friendly forum.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Sorry you feel that way, arsenix2001.

I doubt you'd be feeling the same way if you had over two dozen mature bearing blueberry bushes wiped out by them; and lost significant revenue because of it. Or had them wipe out half a stand of American Chestnuts being grown for resistance and restoration.

You see, chicken wire, chain-link fence, or even metal flashing has a pretty high failure rate against beavers. Just ask the National Park Service about the cherry trees along the Potomac River. The beavers either bit through the thin wires, or they climbed the **** things and chewed through just above them.

And trapping and relocation don't work anymore. The eastern seaboard beaver population is at saturation levels. Relocation just means over population in the dumping location. Which results in either beavers starving to death (yeah, real humane), or causing problems in that area (not exactly a good neighbor policy.)

Shooting or trapping them is a more efficient method of control for the season. You'll have to keep it up as they flow into the area to replace the ones taken; but that's a sustainable, renewable resource. Meat to eat, pelts to use, and the non-edible parts never last more than a couple of days due to crows and foxes scarfing them up.

Point taken on the shooting angle at rodents in the water, and what's behind them. Shotgun makes a mess of the pelt, but better chance of a hit, and almost no risk of a ricochet. Body shots with a .22 aren't usually effective, those critters are too big unless you get a heart or head hit; plus they ricochet too easily. .38/.357 stops them cold with a single hit, and you have to have a really shallow trajectory to get those to skip.

 

[TraderMark]

It's not just the trees that they damage around here, it's the pond dam itself.
The darned things will tunnel right through the dam if they're left alone for very long.
I can't begin to count the number of ponds around here that were completely drained and ruined by beavers boring through the dams.

And even though our pond doesn't HAVE a dam (natural old cypress pond augmented with some careful dozer work years ago), they still bore long tunnels into the banks, trying to find the other side of the dam. Nothing like riding along on my tractor 15-20 ft from the edge of the pond and suddenly have the earth fall out from under me.

Nasty critters if you ask me!

 

[kebo]

We've had beavers at our hunt club (700+ acres) now for several years. They have been very destructive in several ways. I actually did a thread here with pictures earlier this year, if you search you should be able to find it. Often when you have one beaver, there's usually a couple more there that you don't see. We've tried trapping and shooting them and they keep coming back. They have caused a lot of damage to the spillway at the pond on our main lease, not to mention cutting down literally hundreds of trees from 1" scrub hardwoods to pines that were about 20" at the base. I haven't checked lately but there are still a couple of dams on the creek that feeds the pond, unless someone in the club has destroyed them since last year. Good luck getting rid of them, they are very resilient and determined critters.

 

[whitedogone]

I love my savage 17hmr. Very accurate out to 150 yards. And Deadly on head shots on beavers and muskrats. Most of the time NO exit wound. To those "Nice" people that don't harm defenseless Animals, you might rethink your position if you had a $20,000 bill from an excavator for repairs caused by them. WDO

 

[whitedogone]

I love my savage 17hmr. Very accurate out to 150 yards. And Deadly on head shots on beavers and muskrats. Most of the time NO exit wound. To those "Nice" people that don't harm defenseless Animals, you might rethink your position if you had a $20,000 bill from an excavator for repairs caused by them. WDO

 

[NWOH_Grizz]

The beavers are back here (NW Ohio). After being gone for well over 100 years in the Oak Openings Metropark, they have taken down over 100 trees in the Evergreen Lake area so far this year, mostly 2-3" saplings but also some larger 12-15" trees. They are protected in the park, so I suppose they will get a good foothold there before expanding out.

 

[lungdoc]

We get them blocking up two small dams on my in-laws property and flooding the roads if you don't keep the massive amounts of dirt and sticks out of the spillways. Have used assorted bedsprings, cages etc to keep them away without great success. Trap several every year with a local trapper. Have shot several "drive by" style by pulling up with a guy with a shotgun in the back of the pickup, but found that a scoped .243 with a high velocity round works the best (there's nothing but forested hills around so no richochet worries). They tend to sink when shot so not sure how anyone would retrieve to eat.

 

[Rob2010]

Had beavers at my old house. Trapped them last fall, got nine. Anywhere from 20 pounds to the biggest 61 pounds. Big rats. Caused nothing but damage.

 

[JakeBrake]

Where are those alligators when you need them?