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Ron Smith ... Richmond, VA
02-16-2003, 9:47 PM
My wife inherited 25 acres from her Grandmother, here in northwest Hanover county, where we plan to build our home next spring. I looked over some of the property and found I have some assistance in cutting down some of the trees. I thought I'd show you my helper's work and let you decide. It certainly saves me money on gas of the chainsaw, and isn't nearly as noisy. I'm trying to figure out how to mark the trees I want him to work on instead of using his own judgement.

Ruby in NC
02-17-2003, 5:52 AM
Enjoyed your post.

Do you consider your helper to be an asset or a liability? The reason why I ask is there's a beautiful Beaver Pond a few miles from here.

I've also been amused at the DOT's efforts to stop another one near a highway. Bet they've destroyed the dam a half dozen times over the last few years. The beavers keep putting it back. :p In this case, the land is a swampy area with few trees of any value, so the circumstances are much different from beavers flooding valuable land/timber.

Regards,
Ruby

Ron Smith ... Richmond, VA
02-17-2003, 11:21 AM
If you like swampland, he's an asset ... if you don't, he's a pain in the rear. My FIL has been trying to get rid of this herd,bunch,flock,covey? since before I moved down. They have turned several acres of farmland into a swamp that's useless. Being from Indiana and not around beavers, I find them facinating, at least for now. Once I get moved tothe site and have to deal with them, I'll probably change my point of view. But, they're okay for now.

Mike Cutler
02-17-2003, 12:42 PM
I occaisionally have a little help from your "friends" cousins up here. The actual trick is to identify and mark the trees you DON'T want his help on. 10" flashing material for the first 4 feet of the tree works, althogh hardware cloth/ rodent wire may work equally as well. They are fun to watch, destructive, but fun to watch

Paul Downes
04-16-2004, 7:19 PM
Ron, though I like those critters and enjoy their work, they can ruin a retirement building site in a hurry. I have removed many beavers from farmland and building sites because of their timber felling. Some sites looked more like a clear cut. It's quite a shock to go up to the summer cottage on the lake, in the Spring to open it up and find aspen trees laying on it and all over the yard. The first time I trapped beaver was for a farmer that lost 9 acres of a bean field from the flooding. They will chew on many different kinds of trees. I've seen aspen, poplar, willow, maple, beech, oak, and cherry to name a few. 330 conibear traps work well as do drowner sets. One guy I know spent over $60,000 trying to modify the landscape on his 80 acres on a lake to keep the beavers from flooding it out. I think he shot over 50 one year and commented that there was still plenty around. It didn't help living on a chain 'O lakes. They have a real nice fur.

Steve Clardy
04-16-2004, 7:57 PM
Back in 74 we moved to a place out in kansas next to the Arkansas River. Nice little 24 acre patch to mess around on. On this property there were two huge, very deep sand pits that were basically nothing more than deep ponds then as no one had dug sand out of them for several years. Around these sand ponds were various trees, not too big.
One day I noticed several of them down:eek::eek: and then noticed a beaver home being built on the edge of one of the ponds. I decided I liked trees more than beavers, so I sat the beaver home on fire with gas trying to burn it up.
Next week it was back. The ol beaver kept hacking my trees down and rebuilding.
I was talking to a neighber one day and was telling him about it. He told me there was a trapper guy around that liked to trap beavers. I finally got ahold of him and he came out and set traps.
After 3 weeks he finally got the ol beaver. This critter must have weighed 50#s. He was huge, and really had a set of chompers on him.
That ended my tree problem.:D
Steve