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.