Thank you Peter Theye for sharing this info: Beavers are naturals, their dams clean up a watersheds. We pay good money to dam streams to reduce pollution, beavers are free. Once they establish a home site, they like it there, let them be. They are hard to eradicate, but the question is why try?
We had residents in Carolina Preserve want to get rid of the beavers, because of flooding etc. Fortunately the beaver home site was on Corps land and under Wildlife protection, end of manicured environment, and welcome to nature.
…………. I found this website helpful: http://www.beaversww.org/solving-problems/why-not-coexist/. And also this site: http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/beavers/ There are options beyond trapping (aka killing) beavers to manage flooding. ….. I've been involved with "beaver management" most of my almost 40 year career. Unless you are willing to eradicate beavers from throughout a subbasin, you can't get rid of them. Even then, particularly for a subbasin as small as Pokeberry Creek, it will be temporary. Second, if anyone tried to eradicate beavers from the entire Pokeberry Creek Subbasin via working with USDA, impacts to Cape Fear Shiner habitat in the Haw River would have to be assessed by the USFWS with a request coming from USDA. Remember, these beaver impoundments along Pokeberry Creek help to process nutrients and toxicants before the water makes its way to the Haw River. This is the water we drink and the water Cape Fear Shiners lives in.…..