BEAVERS

Beavers mean different things to different people. Some homeowners might see the beaver as a nuisance, cutting trees, flooding roads and clogging drainage culverts. Other homeowners see beavers as an indispensable and integral component of nature. Beaver ponds improve the water quality of our rivers and bays by slowing the drainage of the land and allowing sediment to settle out of turbid waters. Even when beavers finally move on or are removed, their drained ponds continue to provide important benefits. The exposed mud flats provide fertile soils for lush vegetation to promote diverse wildlife habitats.  It is possible to co-exist with beavers, diminishing, or even eliminating, beaver problems without removing and, as mandated by law, killing beaver families

Beaver problems have become more prevalent as their habitat has been reduced by development. Trapping beavers is expensive and doesn’t permanently solve the problem. The bottom line is for every beaver that is killed, another will follow. The Board has decided that it makes better economic sense (and is more humane) to invest in beaver-bafflers to protect our culverts and drain pipes and to protectively wrap vulnerable trees on common areas.  Where beaver dams are causing flooding they will be destroyed. 

Homeowners can also easily and inexpensively spare their trees from beaver gnawing with wire cylinder tree wraps or cages. These cylinder cages should be made of 1/2-inch-mesh hardware cloth or heavy wire 2" x 4" fencing. The cylinders should be 3 feet in height and well anchored to the ground to prevent beavers from crawling under. The space between the tree and the wire should be no less than 6 inches and preferable 12 inches. Also, by cutting the horizontal wires at one end next to a vertical wire, and then bending the horizontal wire into a hook, these cages can easily be removed for use on another tree. Trees especially vulnerable to beaver damage are: Aspen, Alder, Birch, Walnut, Cottonwood, Maple, Poplar, Ash, Willow and Apple. 

For more information see:

http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/urban/cropsci/wildlife/beavers.html.

Control of Beaver Damage