Busy As a Beaver

With fall approaching it is time to protect our trees from potential damage by beavers throughout the fall and winter. Some of last winter's beaver activity is shown here.




We have a beaver den under the bank of the creek. A trapper is hired regularly by the neighborhood association to deal with the problem. One fall the trapper removed eight beaver from the den. However, other beavers move back in. The best we can do is wrap chicken wire or hardware cloth around the trees we want protected.

In the sixteen years we have lived here, beavers have taken down dozens of our trees. Most are Willows or Dogwood and grow back. But we've also lost Birch, Quaking Aspen, Cottonwood, and even some Pine trees.

An interesting bit of trivia - a beaver can take down a 5" caliber soft wood tree in five minutes and the average beaver fells 200 trees per year.