jsasker007
5 year old buck +
You have to eliminate the beavers or battle them for life.
I had a similar beaver issue this year. They turned a seasonal wetland into an awesome duck pond last fall. I thought this was great since I wanted a duck pond here anyway. The problem is they kept making the dam higher and higher, flooding things way, way beyond what I wanted. Neighbors were complaining because the water was backing up nearly to the road and causing drainage problems. I tried cutting the dam and placing PVC pipes under the dam to regulate the water height and the beavers solved that problem by building a second dam below the first.
I ended up shooting them with a shotgun. 00 buck worked well. They are pretty active at first and last light and you can kill them all and then do what you want with the dam. I left my dam and cut a channel in the adjacent shoreline to regulate the water depth. Hopefully that allows the water to stay at the perfect height.
Mine is 40 acHow big is the property? Beavers can really improve spaces under the right circumstances. We had a huge beaver pond on a 300 acre property, and I wish we had another.
We call them beaver bafflers, a 4 inch corragated drainage pipe that is tied down in the pond. The dam is broke to the desired level, pipe ran through that down stream. Usually the beaver just build another dam below the outlet of the pipe. Lol.
Is anything immediately in danger downstream? I fully understand the potential for danger and damage when their dams break. And big beaver ponds can consume lots of acreage. But man, I see a beaver dam and I see more birds and waterfowl, more insects and aquafauna, frogs...an increase in biodiversity in general. Great edge habitat. Private little fishing hole.