Maine Wildlife Management setting up the live trap for some spring beaver problems
I knew as soon as I pulled into the driveway that I had connected with my adversary. The waters rippled and moved in a small corner of the hay field. There, sitting rather content, half in and half out of the water was my trouble maker. The large healthy looking beaver sat unimpressed, munching on the alders beside it, as I made my way out of the truck and headed across the field.
It’s scenes like this that keep me smiling most days. This particular beaver moved into an old flowage. I had actually taken a pair of beavers out of here the year prior, and it remained abandoned much of the previous summer, fall, and winter. However, here it is Spring again, and the annual beaver migrations were upon us. Two youngsters had made their way into the old abandoned swamp. They found the lodge still intact, plenty of alders to eat, and even the remnants of a large dam. How inviting to a couple of beavers staking it out on they’re own.
Maine Wildlife Management with a successful live trapped beaver
The only problem and kink in these rascals plans was the location of everything. The prior years inhabitants were removed due to the expanding water levels up into the hay fields I had just walked across. Once again, another generation found the area just inviting. To be fair, the beavers had slowly been taking over the fields for many, many generations. There is an old stone wall that cuts through the middle of the swamp. That wall travels almost 300 feet, and was once laid by humans on dry ground. Year after year as the farmers left the land little by little, the beavers moved in little by little. Thick alders, swamp maple, and birch grow up through, and on, that stone wall. At least the parts that aren’t completely submerged under bog water. A relic of a distant past, changing present, and uncertain future. Every interested party fighting for their own piece of existence, staking their claim, and holding out as long as possible.
Maine Wildlife Management checking out some beaver damage to several white oak trees
I loaded the beavers into the truck. I know there will be more. It’s Spring time in Maine, and young beavers are migrating and on the move again. More hayfields will be flooded, prized trees dropped to the ground, and roads dangerously close to being washed out. For now though, these guys would be given a new opportunity in a little piece of water I know of. A place with an abandoned dam, left over lodge, plenty of feed, and no hay fields to content with. There’s no guarantee they will like it, but I’ll offer it still the same. More than likely, we’ll run into each other again downstream someplace.
