This beaver dam has been here 25 years and has a Legendary Resident.
This beaver dam really messed up this stream. It stopped upstream spawning migration. It was removed by the DNR but the beavers were not trapped and another dam is inevitable.
This beaver dam is new from last year and is totally screwing up one of the BEST brook trout streams in the area.
They do make nice hats! And now that I have been a smart a#$%, I have to agree, they can and DO mess with some great fishing. That is why they are on our furbearing list, so they can be removed and, somewhat, controled.
Again with the beavers? Wasn’t it about a year ago we had this discussion? Check the regs, do some control, I hear the tails taste good. Or, just let nature be nature.
Moa Diver, thanks for the reminder! I tasted beaver tail in my much younger days and remember it to be tasty!
Two of my “secret” fishing spots are beaver ponds. The beaver population around bozeman is definitely growing, and i welcome them.
new beaver dams can be very productive.
long term ones mess up the PH and the temps.
they also block upstream spawning urges.
The newest one “the bottom photo”
Is on private land. The land owner needs to ask for beaver intervention.
This is per my DNR buddy.
bever tastes really good. and their great tying materials. but in truth can we blame them for doing what their ment to do?
Charlaine - My feelings exactly.
Tim
I’m really torn on this issue. For each chunk of stream that gets lowered by these engineers, the fishing on the other side of the damn seems to get a whole lot better. You sure have to admire their work effort too. Just goes to show that you can’t please everyone. 8T 
Alabama brought in alligators to control the beavers in N. Alabama. It didn’t work and the gators are getting plentiful.
Knucks
the three dams above are ALL on PREMIUM brook trout streams.
All three have tigers on them too.
Please don’t take this wrong, Beavers are a VERY interesting creature to watch and some of natures amazingly brilliant engineers. They can and do create some great fishing spots, Dutch Joe slews feeding the Big Sandy is a prime example of this. By the same virtue, we have had beavers mess up some very good brookie streams, the Little Sandy, Chicken Creek, Blucher, and the Sweetwater River. The PoPo Agie has both conditions thru its length. Since man has invaded their realm, they have been viewed both good and bad, and with that I won’t say anymore because I have seen both sides in person.
Bundle them up and ship them to New Orleans. They can get to work shoring up any leaky levees and problem solved! 
I have wondered the same types of questions. The beavers were here before me why not let them do what is in their nature?
Men much more knowledgeable than I have decided that they are a negative for our streams. The Wis Dept of Natural Resources does contract out the removal of the dam and the removal of the beaver. I can’t legall take care of the beaver myself in our state.
The effects of beaver dams are well documented on trout streams. The temperature of the stream is raised and they effect spawing activity.
The two photos come from the same stream and are what happens when the dam is removed without removing the dam builder.
The Wis DNR had this dam removed, then this was was built within 200 yards of the first one by the spring of the following year.
Rick
hmmm, wonder how gators would do in Wisconsin? And if they did take off, and if they did control the beavers, what would we have to import to control the gators?
Before people came along, who did the trout turn to in order to get rid of the beaver dams? There have always been trout, and always been beavers. They seemed to tolerate each other fairly well before we came along.
Of course there’s always the New Orleans idea. Would they have to contract through the Corps of Engineers, or FEMA?
I think people used the beaver pelts in years past, these days some find real fur to be politically incorrect. I also feel that the amount of trout waters are growing because of groups like TU and the DNR managing for more trout. If we hunted bald eagles, we would make sure there were a lot of them. Again it’s not me that came up with the idea that beavers are bad for trout populations.
"Abstract.?The use of beaver Castor canadensis ponds by juvenile coho salmon Oncorhynchus
kisutch and other fishes has been well established. However, the population-level effects on coho
salmon resulting from the widespread removal of millions of beaver and their dams from Pacific
Coast watersheds have not been examined. We assessed the current and historic distributions of
beaver ponds and other coho salmon rearing habitat in the Stillaguamish River, a 1,771-km2
drainage basin inWashington and found that the greatest reduction in coho salmon smolt production
capacity originated from the extensive loss of beaver ponds. We estimated the current summer
smolt production potential (SPP) to be 965,000 smolts, compared with a historic summer SPP of
2.5 million smolts. Overall, current summer habitat capacity was reduced by 61% compared with
historic levels, most of the reduction resulting from the loss of beaver ponds. Current summer
SPP from beaver ponds and sloughs was reduced by 89% and 68%, respectively, compared with
historic SPP. A more dramatic reduction in winter habitat capacity was found; the current winter
SPP was estimated at 971,000 smolts, compared with a historic winter SPP of 7.1 million smolts.
In terms of winter habitat capacity, we estimated a 94% reduction in beaver pond SPP, a 68% loss
in SPP of sloughs, a 9% loss in SPP of tributary habitat, and an overall SPP reduction of 86%.
Most of the overall reduction resulted from the loss of beaver ponds. Our analysis suggests that
summer habitat historically limited smolt production capacity, whereas both summer and winter
habitats currently exert equal limits on production. Watershed-scale restoration activities designed
to increase coho salmon production should emphasize the creation of ponds and other slow-water
environments; increasing beaver populations may be a simple and effective means of creating
slow-water habitat."
quote from http://duff.geology.washington.edu/grg/publications/pdfs/Pollock.pdf
Of course we always know better.:roll:
Full Article can be found here: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=ewdcc4
First few paragraphs are as follows:
[LEFT]“Beaver (Castor canadensis) dam
building activities create many
longtern affects on stream ecosystems.
Beaver dams may negatively
influence trout fisheries
by creating physical
barriers to spawning areas,
increasing sediment retention,[/LEFT]
and increasing water temperatures.”
Gators didn’t do too well in North Mississippi. The Game and Fish people relocated gators from Louisiana to the Tupelo area, and I expect other areas of North Mississippi in the late 70’s. I don’t think many survived and winter in all parts of Mississippi are a tad warmer than any part of Wisconsin of which I am ware.
Jesse–
What if they tried the glow-in-the-dark albino sewer gators in the New York City Sewer system? Surely they’re acclimated.
