Originally Posted by
snarkypup
I'm dying to know how you know this.
I'm sorry if this is not a short answer. We have a significant beaver population here in the NH mountains. They are nearly as easy to find as wild turkeys (although they are in hiding at the moment).
About 6 years ago, while I was away for 3 weeks, a family decided to invade my yard and proceeded to dam-up the small creek flowing through my yard. When I discovered their handy work, in my naive ignorance, I was thrilled! I could stand quietly on the top of the dam and they would swim right to my feet, place a stick, add mud and grass, and pack it in. They could not have been closer, and this is how I know they stink.
However, beavers do not know how to stop adding to the height of their dams. Their quaint little pond, which was initially 25-30 feet in diameter, kept growing! Soon their rodent engineering was successfully flooding my driveway, the neighbor's yard, and the road in front of our houses!
Everyday I had to spend an hour or so ripping a hole in the dam (instead of riding a bike), in order to release water to keep the pond a manageable size. Each night they would patch and repair the hole. I finally outwitted them when I installed a drain pipe which kept the pond at a constant level--- but when we had severe rains or the snow melt the little drain could not handle the additional flow and we had the problem all over again. Eventually the town sent in a trapper and we tore significant holes in the dam.
Now, if young beavers get busy on my property, I do everything possible to scare them away! I'm known as the "Anti-Beaver" pastor around town.