Anyone that knows history is well aware of the value of beavers and the fur trade to settlement. Historically, trapping and beaver hides were instrumental in the culture and bartering of early life on the Great Plains. Today, although we don't use beaver pelts in trade, their presence is still much a part of rural and even urban Kansas and they are quite common in many locations.
However, North America's largest rodent can cause substantial tree damage and their dams can flood agricultural and other prime land holdings making a giant, sometimes monetarily-significant, mess. Like other furbearers, the control of their populations is necessary and beneficial in ordinary situations, but absolute where they're causing damage.
So when a friend e-mailed me complaining of beaver problems I was eager to assist. It seems beavers had built a couple dams and were backing water up where it didn't belong and worse yet, they were chewing down trees nightly. While most of the seasons for other furbearers ended in mid-February, the beaver season runs through the end of March. So I loaded up a few beaver traps last weekend to see if I couldn't help him out and get rid of a few beavers.
The tree damage was easily visible along the creek and the dams were substantial. After a little
scouting I found their lodge and got busy setting a 330 body-gripping trap on a tall, H-stand to reach the bottom in one of two runs in 3 feet of water. No sooner than I got the second one in place I saw the top of the other stand twitch like something hit it. I had never caught a beaver that quick, nor seen one get caught, but assumed there would be much more commotion when it happened. But there wasn't and the 35 pound beaver died quickly and humanely.
I had to go back to my vehicle to get my setters/tool to reset the trap with the beaver in it. In the meantime, I saw my friend driving by and asked him if he wanted to see how quickly I had worked on his beaver problem.
"Did you catch one already?" he asked in disbelief.
"I did!" I replied.
He wanted to see it so he followed me down the creek bank. The beaver's tail was floating at the surface and while my friend said, "That's awesome you already caught one!" I glanced over and saw the second trap stand was moved out of position a few inches from where I'd set it.
"I might have another one," I said as I walked over to it.
My suspicions were confirmed when I pulled that stand up and another 35 pound beaver was dead in that trap. In a matter of minutes I'd caught more than 70 pounds of beaver and I was off to a good start in removing the animals causing the problems.
The check the next morning would be successful as well. I caught three more beavers and two of them were similarly sized to the ones the day before. However, the last one was CONSIDERABLY larger than the others and later weighed a whopping 55 pounds. In just two days I had five beavers weighing nearly 200 pounds. Subsequently, three days of empty traps told me I might have solved his problem, at least for now.
I skinned all of the beavers and I'm in the process of fleshing, stretching and drying the pelts to send with the rest of my other furs to sell at auction in a couple weeks. Trapping beavers is hard work, but rewarding in the fact I helped out a friend, while at the same time realizing a small monetary reward for my efforts, much like early settlers did way back when.
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