I'm going to regret this

Took on a beaver job in Dekalb county. Every major drainage in the county is "floodplain greenspaces" pretty much under county control, of lack thereof. Needless to say they are all pretty much beaver swamp. The upstream property owners are backwaters.

One of those owners contacted me to try to save the trees on his lot and keep them from dying and coming down. He can't even cut them proactively, and he's got one really nice black walnut in there, 20"dbh 16' to the first fork.

Upstream is beaver and downstream is beaver and everything in flood at the moment.

I spent more time trying to talk him out of hiring me as I can offer zero guarantee or hope of solving the problem in this situation.

I could camp out on that short 100 yard section of creek catching beaver until kingdom come.

How is the fur in March that far south,Is it going springy yet or still prime?

I can't tell a March beaver from a January beaver down here.

well get after them, you getting paid, to catch them??? plus the fur and parts, $$$$

You're gonna need more traps...

My guess is you probably priced it already??? Price jobs you dont want to do so high that if they say proceed you are totally happy. Figure in all your variables. Good luck.

Warrior,
Gotta find that primary control location...ie the dam that is holding water around the lodge or den. Might pick off a few at secondary dams and other spots such as crawlouts and mounds, but to finish the job it'll usually come down to finding that primary location.

Footholds work best. Followed by a few snares. Leave the turtle-catching 330s at home in this warm weather.

On a lot of jobs down here finding and then accessing that primary is often extremely difficult in those swamp-type areas. Sometimes the primary is on another landowner's property. At least you might be cottomouth-free up there

I've tried pricing high on tough jobs. They still pay and then I feel really obligated to do a complete removal. Biting off more than I can chew sometimes.

That's the deal, primary is on county land. How it works here is county does absolutely zero other than clear the occasional culvert or replace culverts. They won't pay. BUT if the homeowner with flooded backyard asks they'll say sure your guy can go onto county land but they won't put it in writing.

The county ends up with most of the bottoms as it's zoned floodplain. Then they do zero management of those bottoms so they end up beaver swamp.

No moccasins up here.

Swamp wolf,jtrap,paul and other water guys are the ones too help you for sure!!!!

No moccasins… you hiring? I have tried to convince some landowners on seemingly no win jobs to learn how to trap. Told them I’d gladly teach them so they could manage their own problems. Never had a taker.

I had a job on a swamp/section of creek between one of the largest creeks in our area and the only “lakes” we have around here. I didn’t think I could do anything besides reduce the population for a short time. 18 beavers and a 6” rain later the dam in the swamp busted and has been dry for the last 2 months. Maybe you’ll be able to put a hurting on them

K, here it is and is typical of urban beaver work that I see.



The line is what I am being asked to trap.

The two county owned to the south are under water with primary on the lower one. Water backed onto the property to the north.

There's beaver to the north.

The circled properties are private owned BUT as they are in or partially in the floodplain the floodplain sections cannot be built upon or timbered, basically of no value/use. Essentially unmanaged out of sight out of mind.

And to the furthest south a series of lakes, all beaver occupied.

Sounds like a fun place to be at night with a thermal on a suppressed rifle!

Or, a bigger boat.

Not in Dekalb. Dekalb is the next door neighbor to Fulton and the other half of Atlanta.

Completely aside from the politics of stupid in the metro shooting beaver would be considered hunting and hunting in the metro counties is bow only.

Those look like those are some town trained beaver too. ugh.

I tried to trap a guys pond for beaver once. I said yeah sure no problem. Turns out I was the tenth guy and each beaver had already earned its masters degree ahead of my arrival.

That is always a possibility but in my experience most are dumb. Reason being no one wants to pay a price to make it profitable, it's the county's responsibility, and a whole host of excuses to not hire it done. That and most NWCOs in the metro are corporate and run bread and butter squirrels, coon, opossum routes.

The clients that readily pay are the HOAs in the new subdivision ponds uphill from these bottoms. Those are new mated or single colony and done jobs. I sell those as expect more come spring and have some that are regulars every year. One going on five years now popping in picking up a new pair.

These bottoms are a nasty mess of flooded bottom, privet, multiflora, mohonia, elagnus, ivy, nandina and holly plus drifts of urban trash and tires.

But because they are usually small and narrow sites that I'm on they are easy to educate so I got to be on my game.

These bottoms are the source colonies for the HOA beaver.

Lots of roads there-easy access.
Hammer them.

"Easy access" ?

Lol...if Boco only knew...

A southern swamp is somewhat different than a northern bog.

If you can drive on a road to the swamp instead of hacking a trail thru the bush for your skidoo for a couple miles,that is easy access in my book.

It is easy access but once off pavement it gets rough. I doubt Boco has ever seen a bottom full of privet hedge.

Boco, snow cover very minimal there in Dixie and I imagine Warrior has had limited opportunity to use his skidoo this year.

No joy today the dams blew out with the high water and dropped nearly two feet leaving my footholds high and silted in. Snares hanging high. Reset everything but we got more rain expected overnight and are under a flood watch so tomorrow they'll be under two foot of water, lol.

You can't catch a break.

It's the nature of the beast. And if I ain't (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) and moaning I'm must not be having fun, lol.

Warrior, that was a click bait title if I ever seen one. Hadn't been on here in a spell and see "I'm going to regret this" coming from a good ol boy I fully expected a wild tale of some sort. Kinda like hold my beer/drink SMH

I understand your dilemma. I did a job several years back where a housing development was built around a string of ponds down a drainage. Each pond had it's own beaver population, but only one home owner trying to sell had to get rid of the beaver in her yard to sell the house. I told her I could get the ones out of her pond, but she had better sell fast as new ones would be back in short order. She was in a tight spot with the realtor and I felt sorry for her situation so I cleared her pond and even stayed a bit longer getting the ones traveling in from the next door ponds, but it has bugged me ever sense knowing the problem was sure to return shortly after I left. I am not sure I would take a job like that again knowing I couldn't solve the problem for any length of time, but at the end of the day it all depends on if you feel you can do right for the customer. I would definitely make sure they understand what you can or can't do and that their expectations match that.

I’m with Andy. I would explain to the landowner the current situation, charge by the day, set it heavy, and do your best. A map and a few pictures may help the landowner better understand.

What really bugs me the most on jobs like this isn't the mess or even the fact I can't catch them all for the client. It is that so much of this is due government policy and mismanagement.

Something about idiots doing dumb things with my tax money, which almost always calls for more dumb things with my tax money, that really sets me off.

I kind of feel like I should get some of that money back on jobs like this.