By Carlin LeDoux
America’s WETLAND Conservation Corps Member
and LSU AgCenter Intern, Beauregard Parish Office
It's a renewable natural resource and a valued commodity that sparked international trade and helped spur on the exploration of North America, and its ability to change its natural surroundings is second only to humans. Can you guess what it is? It’s a beaver, of course!
North America’s largest rodent, the beaver’s thick and luxurious fur was once held in such high demand that unregulated trapping, which lasted well into the 20th century in some areas, reduced beavers to only a fraction of their original range. Due to management practices and the severe decline of the trapping and fur industry, however, over the past two decades populations have begun to soar. This poses a unique problem for southern foresters, rice farmers and landowners. As beavers become more plentiful, and begin reclaiming their previous territory, they begin to do what beavers do best.
There are two primary behaviors of beavers that make them particularly detrimental to the timber industry. The first is the beaver’s habit of cutting down most any available woody material in their path. This nasty habit stems from the fact that trees, shrubs and other woody materials make up the entirety of a beavers diet. Considering a mature beaver can weigh from 35 to 60 pounds, you can imagine what an appetite they can have! Beaver’s don’t just settle for trees and shrubs, though; any woody vegetation which presents an easy meal will be readily eaten, as well.
Beavers are largely aquatic, spending the vast majority of their life in or near the water. Ponds, lakes and slow-moving streams are the beaver’s preferred habitat, but any sizeable body of fresh water with an available food source will be used. When a beaver moves in to an area, it first sets up home. In lakes, ponds and swamps a beaver will usually make a lodge. In larger or faster moving streams and rivers beavers often times burrow into the stream bank. In smaller, slow-moving streams a beaver will often construct a dam of sticks and mud across the stream in order to slow water flow and raise the water level above the dam, many times flooding timber and creating a shallow pond or lake. This practice is largely beneficial to all manner of wildlife by creating excellent feeding habitat for ducks and water birds and foraging habitat for otter, mink and raccoon, just to name a few. The only negative side to this two-faceted issue is when humans are involved.
Beavers often will clog up drainage pipes and spillways in order to slow the movement of water, which subsequently gets them in frequent trouble with landowners, especially rice farmers. When this damming takes place in stands of nonmarketable bottomland hardwoods, the economic impact usually is negligible and tolerated; however, when this occurs adjacent to marketable pine stands, agricultural fields or urban developments, the effects can be devastating.
So how should people go about managing beavers that are creating damage on their property?
To an individual or group looking to alleviate damage sustained by local beaver populations, there are several ways to go about it. Here are a few methods, which are most commonly employed.
To decide which method to use, you must first decide whether you want to eliminate the beaver or take measures to discourage damaging behavior. In most instances, the latter of these is only applicable in certain situations and does not always alleviate the problem.
When trying to disperse beavers from an area, the surest method is to remove their lodge, dam and food sources. This can be more difficult than you would think. Many times the most telltale sign of a beaver’s presence, the dam, is destroyed. This can sometimes cause a beaver to take up residence elsewhere, but generally it’s met with an absurd amount of industry on the beaver’s part. Dams which have been partially or wholly destroyed usually are rebuilt within a matter of days -- if not hours. The same applies to the lodge. Even if both lodge and dam are destroyed, if there is an adequate supply of forage and building material, the beavers will be happy to either rebuild or to move to the next suitable location just up or down stream. In the instance of commercial timber or agricultural practices, removing the food source is obviously not an option. Therefore, more substantive measures must be taken. While harvesting beavers with a high powered rifle is surely an effective and lethal means of quickly diminishing the population, it’s not as easy as that. Beavers are nocturnal, meaning they generally are active only at night. They may be seen during the early morning or late afternoon hours, but most of their activities are masked under darkness. Therefore, the only practical method of permanently reducing the beaver population in an area is trapping.
While trapping is considered by many to be a cruel and unethical practice, the fact remains that trapping is the most effective and efficient method of controlling the populations of many different species of animals, including beavers. Because beavers are creatures of habit, they tend to frequent the same feeding and resting areas and use the same trails and waterways until they move from the area altogether. This makes them particularly susceptible to trapping and makes it possible to remove a large percentage of a local population in a relatively short period of time.
For landowners looking to trap beavers themselves, a basic understanding of beaver habits, the proper equipment and a fair amount of time dedicated to the task are necessary. For most instances a body-gripping (Connibear) type trap, leg-hold traps or snares are the most practical and efficient method of taking beavers. However, these traps are impartial as to what they catch! For this reason I would suggest that anyone new to trapping either purchase an instructional book or video on the subject or, better yet, try to get firsthand instruction from a seasoned trapper, wildlife control specialist or Wildlife and Fisheries officer. In Louisiana, nuisance beavers that are causing damage to property can be harvested by landowners throughout the year without any special permits. However, if a landowner would like to harvest beavers with a firearm at night, a special permit is needed from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) and can be obtained from any local LDWF office. This free permit allows the landowner to legally harvest beavers on three consecutive nights with the use of a firearm.
If you do not feel you are up to the task of attempting to remove nuisance beavers yourself, the best thing to do is contact someone who has experience. Because there are not an abundance of trappers left in the south, it may prove difficult to find someone who is still proficient in the skill. If you are unsure of how to find a local trapper, I would suggest contacting the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, your local LSU AgCenter office or the Louisiana Trapper and Alligator Hunters Association.
It seems that with the continued rise in beaver populations there will be more and more conflict between them and landowners in the future. However, beavers will never go away and neither will landowners and the timber industry. Only through the education of landowners and their implementation of wise management practices can a happy median be reached.