In June 2008, the Catawba County Board of Commissioners approved the enrollment of Catawba County in the Wildlife Resources Commission’s Beaver Management Assistance Program. According to the Wildlife Resource Commission’s web site, the program works to “educate the public and participating landholders about the best strategies for managing beaver damage, including the pros and cons of removing beavers or using pond levelers, exclusion, or other non-lethal techniques.”

Wildlife specialists working with the program often hold workshops on beaver damage management, and about beavers, for civic and professional organizations, schools, landholder groups and others. Land owners who cannot tolerate damage being done by beavers may, through the program, ask wildlife specialists for assistance in removing the animals and their dams in humane and environmentally acceptable ways.

“My office has received numerous reports of beavers and active dam building in the eastern half of Catawba County along Lyle Creek, Balls Creek, Hagan Creek and in small streams adjacent to Lake Norman,” said Richard Grant, District Conservationist with the Newton Field Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. “I know of several farms near Lyle Creek which have a significant beaver population. The beavers have eliminated timber value since the trees are under water, they are dying, and it may be impossible to harvest the trees in the beaver ponds.”

The estimated cost for trapping beavers in counties not in this program is $1000. Since Catawba County is now enrolled in the Beaver Management Assistance Program, the cost to a Catawba County citizen would be $20 per visit by an agent and $125 per dam removal. These agents are able to provide assistance in the removal of the beavers and their dams, and offer education to land owners on handling beaver problems in the future. It may take several visits to get rid of the beavers. Catawba County’s cost to be enrolled in the program is $4000 annually.

For more information on the Beaver Management Assistance Program, or to arrange for a visit by an agent, you may call Dustyn Reece of the US Department of Agriculture at 828-439-3836 or e-mail him at Dustyn.K.Reece@aphis.usda.gov.