Thats no rabbit i got an orchard beaver!
Thankfully this is a junk tree
You best get him trapped or your wont have any orchard left!!
3 Likes
You could plant a lot of fast growing poplars and such near the water for the beaver to enjoy?
Pretty looking pond
2 Likes
Where my grand father lived in Colorado they were a terrible pest. The land was flood irrigated and they would in the ditches and dam them up.
3 Likes
The beavers showed up at my place about a month ago, but FWP would not allow me to trap them because they are “protected” until today, Nov 1st, when trapping season begins. (FWP doesn’t care if my house is flooded, and will only give a “damage permit” if the dams cause water to cross a road.) The beavers have been building dams for about a month already, and the once shallow creek on my property is now much deeper and wider. Had a couple guys say they’d trap 'em for me, but haven’t heard back from them yet and the dams keep getting taller, and the creek deeper and wider. I am also worried that, with this wider surface area of water, and unless I break the dams, I may have a problem with “ice jams” this spring that cause flooding of my house. Oh, and the pocket gophers are back too in large numbers, and their tunnels are moving closer and closer to my apple trees in the garden. Sheesh!
3 Likes
A .22 and a lawn chair will solve that problem.
7 Likes
@JohnnyRoger
The old timers would blow holes in log jams. Now a days i dont believe it’s allowed for several different reasons. Beavers have protections as well. When i was a kid they used a permit of some type. It was perfectly legal in the 40s , 50s, and 60s for farmers to buy what they needed at the hardware store like that to remove log jams.
Some still used what they had in the 70s. My neibors had special permits when i was a small kid which they used to make ponds, remove large rocks and stumps, and not to kill beavers but to remove log jams. Nowadays i’m not sure what the laws are regarding beavers but i would start by contacting the fish and game commision. If they allow it i would remove them by whatever means permitted in your area. Thankfully my problem is smaller, a trapper will resolve the problem quickly and legally.
4 Likes
I would get you a couple 330 conibears and make some H-stands for them. I’ve trapped hundreds of them, they are very easy to trap. Chances are very good that you will continue to encounter problems with them every year once they find your pond for the first time, especially if they have a chance to become well established in your area. A lot of cool history with this critter and the fur trade in the early years of settlement. They are genius architectures while very destructive at the same time, too bad they are not worth anything in today’s fur market, one of the nicest furs out there in my opinion. No fur value really has most of the furbearers in our area really going up in population, nobody trapping these days.
3 Likes
Yeah, I am next door to a “land trust” property that has lots of wetlands habitat already established for ducks and large birds, so I am afraid the beavers may become a reoccurring problem. We’ve only been here three years and this is the first we’ve seen them, but we were told they’ve been a problem in the past and taken down several apple trees that previously grew along the creek. And our neighbor called two weeks ago to tell me he had a large black bear climbing in his apple trees, and breaking branches as he went from tree to tree. On our property, I’ve seen racoons, mink, pocket gophers, ground squirrels (prairie dogs), black bear, deer, and elk, but perhaps the worst and most threatening of all has been the grasshoppers. 
4 Likes
Do any tree guards work? We added hardware cloth to trunks this year.
3 Likes
I’ve seen beavers crawl up hardware cloth to just chew the tree above the wire. they are resourceful. maybe a 3ft tall piece might do it. wardens look the other way when theres a nusience beaver. there are way too many up here. logging companies have the foresters shoot them as soon as they start blocking culverts or flooding roads. they gave up relocating about 20 yrs ago.
5 Likes
I have to wrap the trunks of all of my fruit and ornamental bushes with chicken wire that reaches above the high snow line, and inside that, 1/4 inch mesh because of heavy vole damage. It has worked 100 percent of the time except when the snow got over 3 feet in the Adirondacks , then the tops of some small apple trees were destroyed. I go higher now. Electric fence maybe?
2 Likes
Can we have all your beavers? We are not legally allowed to stop our rivers because 100 years ago someone sold away all our water. We need our beavers back!
Beavers can be tremendously important for the ecosystem and without them we lose our water and wetlands and it increases fire danger and forces environmental changes.
If you want to not have to kill them forever you could make a culvert so the beaver only makes so large of a damn and then other beavers do not move in.
This lady is the sweetest lady around and did you know beavers like to cuddle?
4 Likes
That’s right, and did ya notice, by my side, it’s ol’ Ruth! 
Well, the solid truth is he’s a jack, and not no jenny, that’s for sure…
https://youtu.be/uo696R-yrn8
3 Likes
I had a neighbor lose 25 trees to “voles” that ringed all the bases of the trunks, so I put 1/4 inch hardware cloth on all my 1, 2, and 3 year old trees, 2 feet high. I’m not sure if they’re vole or “pocket gophers,” though, actually. According to the county extension person who came to look at my weeds in the pasture and give me some advice, she called them pocket gophers (they make the tunnels that appear to be raised above ground). She said they will eat the roots underground as well, along with the ground squirrels (or prairie dogs?), and said I may want to bury the hardware cloth a foot or two deep to make a 6 ft. diameter border around the trees when planting in their final location. She said the hardware cloth will disintegrate by the time the trees are full grown, and the standard sized trees can withstand some root damage when full grown.
As for the beavers, they have enough berry bushes, willow, & etc. in the creek to make dams without bothering my apple trees, I think, and so it is the voles and prairie dogs I need to worry about and conquer. But once again, they’re just so cute!
3 Likes
You should be relieved to know that I live downstream, and right next to a “land trust” property which has a pretty large wetlands habitat already established. There are geese, herons, other large birds, falcons and all of these wildlife give thanks to those beavers that created the wetlands there. As you continue upstream and around the bend, you travel uphill on only a slight grade which allows more wetland areas and habitats for many animals, including bobcats, bears, & etc., who are graftful for the beavers too, but in a different way. You see, they enjoy eating them…and if there are enough beavers to eat, maybe the bears won’t need to continue traveling downstream so often in search of trees with apples to eat. There are a lot of properties both up and downstream from mine for the beavers to do their thing…and I even enjoy using the beaver-chewed wood for making bent willow furniture. But when they cause the creek to rise and create the risk of flooding my house when the snow and ice jams in the spring, it’s time to choose–them or me! Thankfully, I found a fellow who trapped one for me, and he will be sending the hide to the Moyle tannery for a professional garment tanning and used to make clothing–rather than going to waste. Some people find fur clothing distasteful, while others do not, and I am one who appreciates a nice and warm, awesome fur hat. I have hats I’ve made myself with coyote, bobcat, and badger furs, and they keep me warm to 40 below zero. In fact, at that temperature, the rest of me begins to get cold while the hats keeps my head nice and cozy. I hand stitch deerskin liners into them with waxed thread, and I give them each the dignity and respect they deserve as creations of God, our Heavenly Father. 
.It is fortunate for me also I live in a state where a good number of people appreciate hats like these as much as I do, and so rather than facing scorn and disgust, I am greeted with delight and envy. Indeed, I look forward to winter each year, when the temps fall below 20 and it’s cold enough to wear my hats!
11 Likes
Thats really a nice hat and we are definitely losing our tradespeople who still have these skills.
I really respect and love the old style of living with nature and providing it a place to live and giving its body a use is honoring it i feel! Anyone who provides nature for trees and animals is doing good for the planet and all of us.
Yeah when i was just out in the PNW getting blasted with ocean spray and breeze I was actually thinking this is exactly why people have those wet fur coats and thinking about how warm they are.
Now all those people that had to kill the factory mink farms im fine with, Our current style of factory farming is a unnatural blight on the land and just like people i believe you can only have so much feces per square mile until really bad stuff happens. Its too bad we don’t have fur companies that only use wild fur with quality crafstmen it may have a chance to catch on and not get all the hate.
I really believe we need to find a way to monetize nature or else people are just going to frack it to hell and
blow it up (current way of mining) to gather the minerals that we just end up throwing away in a landfill that we use to make our new mountains of trash.
Nice hat!
4 Likes
Nice hat! Moyles mink and tannery is the best, no doubt. That is where I send all my fur too to get tanned. I’ve had blankets made, but need to get a heavy duty industrial sewing machine to make my own things like your hat. A buddy of mine has one and he makes teddy bears and gloves out of them. The only bad thing about a blanket made out of beaver fur is that it gets too hot to sleep under, it will not work inside a heated house. You are right @RichardRoundTree, these captive fur farms have killed the wild fur market.
3 Likes