I noticed the creek at the end of the road was fairly high 2 weeks ago and saw fresh beaver cuttings. The creek runs diagonally across a 'T' intersection with a large culvert on the upsteam side under the main road that was where the dam was built and a small culvert on the downstream side under a dirt road. I looked up the land owner (it's vacant land) thru the tax rolls, told him what was going on and got permission to try and trap them out. The owner works for the county road commission. I was finally able to set over the Thanksgiving weekend and after 3 empty checks at a castor mound, on Sunday I moved my 330 to the smaller downstream culvert and had a 30lb male in it Monday morning. Monday afternoon, the county pulled out the dam draining the small pond and returning the creek to its natural state, a small trickle. I assume there would be at least 2 beaver there, they had made the dam and a lodge and had cut down a good many trees for a feed pile. What would the 2nd (or more) beaver do? Do they stay? or move up or down stream? I haven't noticed any activity since Monday. I still have trapping access, so I'd like to try and get some additional beaver. I'm fine that took the dam out, I figured they would, and I don't need my road washed out in the spring. I just figured I have a little longer to trap before it was out.

Go to the house or bank dens,and if the water is low enough look for beaver tracks in the mud nearby.Sometimes they will move upstream,sometimes downstream.By looking for tracks it may give you an idea which way the beaver went or if it went anywhere at all.Often they will stay in the house with no water and will start re building the dam if there is no ice.Other times they will go up or downstream for a while and come back later,in a week or more sometimes.Check in a few days for dam activity.If you have ice,they wont work on a new dam.
If there are channels with water in them(like the main creekbed) these are great places to catch the beaver after the dam is gone,as their movements are limited.Look for a natural dive /pinch points to set 330's,or import a natural looking dive log at a natural pinch point.If you have ice you can skip the dive log.
Try not to leave much sign and keep your sets natural as beaver will be on alert after losing all the water.
Give your traps time to work sometimes a trap can sit there in these situations for quite a while before connecting.

We manage over 250,000 acres of industrial timberland in NY’s Adirondacks and Tug Hill Plateau. We have nuisance blanket permits that allow us anytime of year, to tear down beaver dams or kill the beaver within 250’ of any of our logging road systems. I agree with Boco that many times when we drain a beaver pond, the beavers will hunker down in their lodge and not try to repair the dam for several days.

We try not to waste the beaver resource so we usually try to coordinate our beaver management strategies during open trapping season. I trap some, but we also allow several trappers onto various properties to trap. On one 30,000 acre tract on Tug Hill the 3 trappers annually take around 100 beaver.

I’d also let your traps soak a while longer before pulling them.

I was just doing some dam removal on a Logging road. The trapper had removed the beaver but not all. It was a week after I removed the dams before I saw any activity from the one's he had not gotten. I was driving by them every morning and evening for work. The houses were high and dry so I think they were just waiting for things to settle down.

Great advice

Thanks for the tips everyone. I got a 2nd one out of this creek this morning. Saw what appeared to be a bank entrance near the lodge and set a 330 in front of it. It's missing a front foot, so probably not it's first go round with a trapper. Probably will be done trapping there for now. Ill watch for activity in the spring and give it a go then. This is my first experience targeting beaver, definitely want to do some more.