#$%^$ beavers

[Wild Bill]

I've read this guide a handful of times. Some pretty good information on beavers and how they impacted the Northern Great Plains, pre-settlement extirpation and how ranchers are now working to restore watersheds and beaver populations.
Glad to see people recognizing the benefits of beavers instead of viewing them strictly as a nuisance.
Understanding Western South Dakota Prairie Streams

 

[Handlebar]

I've read this guide a handful of times. Some pretty good information on beavers and how they impacted the Northern Great Plains, pre-settlement extirpation and how ranchers are now working to restore watersheds and beaver populations.
Glad to see people recognizing the benefits of beavers instead of viewing them strictly as a nuisance.
Understanding Western South Dakota Prairie Streams

I know one of the authors, what they are doing with beaver analogs and beavers themselves is good work. In the past 20 years they have slowly worked back into the country I work in and the results have been incredible. I have longed maintained that while the decimation of the buffalo was awful it was the decimation of the beaver that was the real ecological disaster for the western US.

 

[Nick87]

I know one of the authors, what they are doing with beaver analogs and beavers themselves is good work. In the past 20 years they have slowly worked back into the country I work in and the results have been incredible. I have longed maintained that while the decimation of the buffalo was awful it was the decimation of the beaver that was the real ecological disaster for the western US.

That's interesting. Food for thought.

 

[LuketheDog]

Check your game regs first. I think most states it’s illegal to shoot a beaver. You can trap them in most states with proper license.

It's about the opposite in Colorado, have to use ridiculous live traps here but you can shoot them...

 

[RealMuddyboots]

Local park in constant war with them on blocking a 5' under road culvert.

 

[Khunter]

My partner recently put up a game camera where deer have been entering and leaving a pasture. This photo shows all the was left when he went to check it earlier today. No sign of the sapling or the camera. Thankfully, it was one of those cheap, $25 cameras.

View attachment 388297

I know where you can find the camera, LOL

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Local park in constant war with them on blocking a 5' under road culvert.

Places will trick beavers to build a dam away from a culvert by playing running water sounds on a boom box in standing water.

The beaver hears the running water and starts to build a dam there until the trees bury the sound of the boom box!

 

[Nick87]

Places will trick beavers to build a dam away from a culvert by playing running water sounds on a boom box in standing water.

The beaver hears the running water and starts to build a dam there until the trees bury the sound of the boom box!

I've heard of guys using a syphon with a hose and dumping it into standing water. If they can't hear it they womt build it. supposedly.

 

[gouch]

For years the forest Service has been replacing corrugated metal culverts with smooth plastic culverts, so beavers won't hear the water flowing through and build dams to stop it.

On New Years Day, 1997 we had a big Flood event. It washed out a good portion of a road and the approach to a bridge across Little Butte creek. The Forest Service decided to just tear out the bridge and abandon that section of road. Some locals sued the government and claimed they couldn't abandon the road because it was a pioneer road and by law it had to be maintained.

So, I got to take the original plans of the 1880s road and try to retrace it on the ground to see if the existing forest service road was indeed following the same rout as the old road. In the process we came across a beaver dam on the creek. It was four to five feet tall and spanned over 100 ft. with a huge pool behind it. The thing was that it was only six months since the flood, so the beavers had either built that massive dam in less than six months or had built it so sturdy that it survived a major flood. Either way it was pretty dam impressive.