Beavers — good or bad?

chad.williams

5 year old buck +
We have had beavers move in recently. In prior years, we would have trapped them hard during the winter to keep from burrowing into our dams.

But, wondered what other habitat-minded folks think of beavers. Thoughts?


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They are neither good nor bad. They just are. If the things they are doing work against your objectives then they are probably bad for you. If the things they do work for your objectives then they are good for you.
 
They moved into our lease down in La one year . For the first couple of years they were just a minor nusiance as they kept daming up the creek but one really dry year They tunneled through our 5 acre pond dam and drained it ruining our good fishing .

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I would not allow them to tunnel into a dam. The cost for repairs will far out way the benefit of having them around.
 
The socialist beavers that take over someone's farm pond need to be removed. They will dig into the pond dam causing the dam to fail at some point. I just trapped out a colony that built a lodge partially on a pontoon boat, crushing the boat. They also dug major runs in the top of the dam which is going to cost tons of money to fix. They start out as a novelty to most people, then at some point in time they realize it would have been easy to get rid of them early, but waited and now you need to bring in heavy equipment for dam removal and repairs. One thing for sure, if people had the work ethic of a beaver we would never have to send jobs overseas.
 
Ticks,coons and beavers need I say more.They are building dams and killing trees. We tried to trap them out but didn't get them all.
 
They are neither good nor bad. They just are. If the things they are doing work against your objectives then they are probably bad for you. If the things they do work for your objectives then they are good for you.

I agree. They can create some absolutely beautiful and diverse wetland habitat. They can also be hugely destructive. On small acreage I'd be very concerned if beaver's showed up. On 500 acres, I'd welcome them.
 
I like them on the big 300 acre property I hunt in Ontario. It's a lot of big open woods, so the free labor in creating diversity is welcome. However, if they threatened to damage something important(road, bridge, dam, house, etc.), I would kill them.
 
We get rid of them as soon as we can. Their dams collect sit warming the water and covering the spawning habitat that the trout need to reproduce. Not to mention what the otters do when they eventually move in to hunt the beaver ponds.
 
We get rid of them as soon as we can. Their dams collect sit warming the water and covering the spawning habitat that the trout need to reproduce. Not to mention what the otters do when they eventually move in to hunt the beaver ponds.

The streams I have aren't big enough to hold trout, but that would be a concern if I had trout streams. They did create amazing duck habitat though. Otters are still present even when the bog doesn't have any standing water. Really weird to meet an otter in the forest 100 yards from the nearest water.
 
Is this a trick question?

See avatar…for timber or agricultural producers beavers are the bane of our existence. If they’re not eating the profits they’re flooding fields or messing up water control structures. In my situation there's just no negotiating, some agreement to "just build here and stop" or otherwise living in harmony with beavers. They can't and won't stop, after all...they're beavers...it's what they do.

We kill every single one we can.

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There is a creek that goes through my land into my neighbors land, he let a beaver in and it made a big dam. My land is rather low land, and it has changed the water table. Things drain much slower now. If we get a couple inches of rain(that would be awesome right now!), it takes much longer to drain, and I have puddles around me. They have created a nice pond for waterfowl, which wasnt there before, but I dont hunt waterfowl, I do however now live on this land that doesnt drain well anymore. The water table has risen about 6 feet.
 
I had some move in and dam a small stream on my property. It’s amazing how fast they work. The lake they created flooded both of my roads to the back half of my land. We trapped a few and I got a few with the shotgun. Fingers crossed as they have been back to fix their dam. C2694C03-BD17-45AF-8B91-420997E226B5.jpeg
 
Some of our best ruffed grouse and woodcock hunting spots are old dry beaver ponds with about six or seven years new growth in them.
Beavers are fantastic for creating diverse habitat...not so good close to farming ot people.
 
I tried to get a permit to build a pond on my WI land and the NRCS drew up a plan that was eventually rejected by the DNR and Corps of engineers since changing a wetland isn't allowed even if creates a larger wetland. Not long after the project was denied a beaver family moved in and built a dam almost exactly where the proposed man made dam was to be built. They created an acre pond that ducks, frogs and turtles love.

But the beavers kept building and building until the water backed up to the road and then I had to get rid of the beavers.
 
Ask Winona

 
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