Call me paranoid, but I see some serious problems in the future with our beaver trapping here in Illinois as far as with legislation.
We now have this this crazy beaver alliance thing that has popped up,
They have assembled so called wildlife experts and they are having conventions about co existing with beavers and pushing for non lethal methods for beaver control.
They are gaining momentum.
You guys who don’t live here are even aware of the madness going on here.. it’s literally the insane running the asylum.
One of the best examples is the passage of the safety act,, which pretty much lets an arrested individual go, after giving them a paper and telling them when they need to show up for court.
Said that the cash bail only catered to the rich people and was picking on minorities who were poor and disadvantaged.

Sounds like Illinois has had folks from our (WA) Beaver Relocation program move in, they live trap relocate then pizz and moan if anyone traps beaver

You will see this new strategy popping up all over the US. Oregon is on the cusp of losing its beaver trapping (at least as we know it) this legislative session. But we started hearing several years ago about how beaver are a keystone species that will save the country from climate change, prevent forest fires, prevent flooding, restore waterways, and create wildlife habitat.

The bible that these "experts" use to fight with is a book about beavers by Ben Goldfarb, "Eager". It is a well written book and has a lot of good beaver information. It also has some very poor information. For example, he looks at what a perfect beaver stream's carrying capacity for beaver is, ie: X number of colonies per waterway mile, then extrapolates that out to all the miles of waterways in the USA and then claims that's what the landscape looked like before white man got here. (And should look like now). He estimates that there were hundreds of millions of beavers then.

This is not true and never was. For example, Oregon's coast range is full of small streams but never had much of a beaver population because the mature fir forest canopy shaded them out and there was not suitable forage. But the "experts" that have testified against beaver trapping in Oregon claim that our coast range should be teeming with flat tails and would be, if not for trapping.

Here is the book that they are using to get their ranks fired up: BTW, it is a good read and is not devoid of actual good info as well.

Those folks are fearful of the ocean's rise.

Wait until their yards & homes are underwater due to beaver dams.

There are many, many homes built too close to a beaver's floodplain.

That's OK. People should learn how to swim because coexistence is important.

I get more calls for "beaver removal with relocation" each year. Of course I tell them to find someone else. But it does seem like its gaining traction.

Those idiots need to come to this farm country and spew that nonsense.
They’d ride them out on a rail.
Beaver harvest is minuscule these days compared to the past.

There is a hiking trail open to the public here in liberal MN with a creek alongside. Beaver built their dam across the creek and the trail flooding it. They felt live trapping and relocating the beaver would be too cruel. They detoured the hiking trail to accommodate the beaver instead.

lol That says it all doesn't it!

They'll run out of detours.....just a matter of time.

I have to remove the beaver alive when trapping in the city parks. But once they are removed It's up to me what I do with them.

The problem is once they are protected and the powers that be figure out eventually that some just have to go trappers will line up to take care of the problem. Everyone that has ever trapped should turn their back on these nitwits and let them figure it out. Or make the law so absolute that beaver can't be moved or killed and stand back and watch what happens.

Here's a beaver I relocated this past season. He ended up in Idaho.

Oregon needs to look at what's happened right across the river in Washingtons Clark County ( and the rest of the state). But they wont listen,,,

We have a group here in Pocatello that thinks beaver populations would grow if trapping would stop,,,, The habitat just is not there. I ran with an Oregon trapper 30 years past He was catching otter 8 -1 in those coastal streams Lots of salmon,,, fir, cedar, spruce and once in a while an alder

Yes sir 100 percent

I don’t understand why people are always so obsessed with what other people are doing, and how to control them. I’ll leave the city folk alone to their gay parades and their electric cars, so I don’t get why they can’t leave others alone in turn. I know this, no law signed anywhere is going to have an effect on me and what I do, and if someone would like to come out here and tell me otherwise, I’ll happily shoot them.

Time to move from that crappy state.

Bounty on beaver in a lot of Arkansas

Ive always been nervous in the back of my mind about the way trapping has been viewed by the general public.. we aren’t the good guys in alot of people’s eyes. There’s really no nice way to say it, but we are cold blooded people and we kill animals. It doesn’t matter to them how violent death is dealt in the wild,, they can’t comprehend it…
But this really has me extremely concerned.. they have people who know how to say the right things and how to twist the narrative…I guess this is kinda how the cowboy felt…

Face it....they are well organized BUT CRAZY! They have been our enemy since traps were first built. Logic doesn't apply even though wildlife management is science based.

Haha, these ideas get out of hand real quick when they come into effect. Enjoy the debacle while it lasts. You’ll be crushing beaver in short order…lol

Mike, I wish I was as calm as you… logic means nothing to our lawmakers in charge.. you know that as well as I do.. that safety act thing and even the homeschool thing that got passed committee.
The homeschool thing had an overwhelming 60,000 signatures AGAINST,,, yet the democrats passed it through committee.

I am not CALM when it comes to these nutballs. I do have faith in our ITA as Ryan Ruhl and his staff has had things under control....though this new issue might have them scrambling a bit. And the other mentioned issue is just more crazies at work selling our kids and parents short. Homeschooling just takes money and power away from democratic based teachers union.

I have full faith and confidence in Ryan’s leadership and ability,, Ryan was indeed the perfect choice for the ITA president. And that he’s always leading the charge in protecting our trapping…
I guess I just see so many things that are backwards becoming the norm lately…maybe I’m just getting old.

I had a meeting this week with a nature preserve operations staff who are wanting to put in a flow device at one of the locations I am assigned by my county contract to trap. They are clearly being influenced by the “beaver coexistence” cult.
I gave it a lot of thought, and I decided to get onboard with this flow device idea. I even proposed it to the county drain board. Why? Because if beavers become well established in the lake that this flows out of, they will just move downstream into the legal drain where a flow device is not practical, and the county will send me there to get them. In the end, I am bidding on the flow device, and if I end up installing it I will make as much in one week as I have made removing beavers from this location in 8 years. And there is also a yearly maintenance contract to keep the system working properly.
Plus, as I honestly told them, having a full colony of beaver in the lake will almost certainly not eliminate the need for trapping on the preserve - in fact, it may increase the number of beaver that have to be removed each year. And it is a legal drain ROW that the preserve can not stop the county from removing the beavers from.
Legal action to limit trapping aside, in my world more beavers is better, and I am playing this coexistence cult in a chess game. They think that by convincing people to put in flow devices and wrap trees with wire, they will end ADC trapping, but I know better. They are constantly lying and saying that flow devices are cheaper than trapping, so OK, lets do this. I am getting into the flow device business. And I am completely honest with people who want to install them that they will not stop the need for trapping, and will not cost less. They look at me like they know something I dont, because they have listened to this cult’s misinformation and are just sure they know my business better than I do. Like I said, OK, lets do this!

Good on you loosanarrow. Go with the flow....device.

Between Alabama Power, Timber companys, farmers, deer hunters trying to access land they lease, etc, etc, i doubt any beaver loving group will gain traction here.

Same here in Georgia. Beaver huggers will get laughed out of the state capital.

loosanarrow has got it going!

Yes!

Yes...he sure does!!!

There is still the danger of legal wrangling to stop or limit trapping. I don’t have such a good answer for that in places like Oregon and Vermont and probably other states. Like Georgia and Alabama as mentioned, I feel fairly confident that they wont get far in Indianapolis- but I don’t feel comfortable enough to say never neither.

Flow devices and wrapping trees with wire.....how stupid are these people? Do they think beaver build dams and drop trees for fun? It's what they do to survive. How is that coexisting?

I trapped for a landowner, who's daughter is a big anti, that he tried to maintain for several years without much success.. He "snuck" me in and I caught 49 beaver.

Well, to be fair, the design recommendations for flow devices include leaving the beaver pond as big and deep as possible, with the goal being to keep the water just shy of the “problem level”.
And the tree wrapping guides specifically state to only wrap “high value” or “special” trees, leaving the rest for the beavers.

But in the end, the beaver colony will outgrow the “coexistence” area, and then it is back to having problems somewhere else. It’s like a sacrifice in chess, I wont be removing beavers from the lake with the FD, but every year that colony will kick out several beavers that have to set up shop somewhere. In the end, more beavers is better for me, and the more “seed” colonies there are, the more calls I will be fielding.

Well thought out and good explanation.

I have only seen a few "flow devices" around here. I do have one particular "conservation area" that believe it or not allowed the farmer to get me in there to trap beaver....for one year. I caught 13 beaver with some monsters. Beaver had seven different dams on the creek that flowed downstream onto more of the farmers land creating problems the whole way. Things changed when the city downstream began experiencing issues. Conservation people put a flow device in and nothing changed....trees were still cut, dams were still built and the flooding became more intense. Finally, the farmer asked to allow me in there again and they refused....so he gave up his lease and moved on. Property is now for sale and the creek is still being flooded tress chewed etc....Sadly, there is now talk about the conservation group purchasing the land. Suckers got some DEEP POCKETS.

Clemson pond leveler's from my experience worked for about 3 years but in the end beaver figured out how to stop them up, once that happened you can forget digging the dam out, will have to have a track hoe come in to dig that mess up.

I seriously doubt there will be a significant “save the beavers” movement in Kentucky either. Our fish and wildlife dept get almost overwhelmed with complaints each year.

I'm not faulting you for taking advantage of their stupid ideas, just pointing out the reality of beaver population dynamics.

I saw that happen in my area too. These so called "flow devices" work for awhile, but eventually the beaver figure out who to plug them up. Waste of time and money.

Yes, there are remnants of old levelers, sometimes multiples, in a number of the places I trap.

I have one place that made the mistake of removing a good ole’ straight pipe and paying thousands to install a flow device. Beaver defeated the flow device and now they pay me to clean that absolute nightmare out AND trap the beavers. 100% wasted money, and now it costs them more because maintenance is so difficult, and they no longer have a straight pipe for an outlet. That leveler is the only outlet, and it is easy for the beavers to plug and difficult to clean out. At least a straight pipe can be guarded by a screen and much more easily cleaned when the beavers move in. I think I have them convinced to put a straight pipe back in because I told them how much less I would charge to clean that out compared to the leveler.