Having purchased my very own piece of hunting ground in January, I set about exploring it, looking for deer sign and potential stand sights.  My little piece of ground is bordered on one side by the end of a watershed lake put in by the government for flood control back in the 80’s.  It is one of a series of five built throughout the county.  In addition to the flood control function, these lakes have also served as giant magnets for beaver!  As a kid growing up in this area, a beaver sighting was a rare thing indeed.  However, with the building of these lakes, the beaver sightings started becoming more and more frequent, and for the most part the population has grown unchecked.  As I walked through my own piece of land, I discovered a large portion of low-lying ground flooded at least one and one half feet deep.  It actually looked like a second lake.  On the far side of the water, near the original creek channel I spotted the cause.  A very large beaver hut sat there.  I knew there were resident beaver, but I did not realize the magnitude! A little more exploration revealed the dam and what a feat of engineering it was!  It was hidden in large part by a huge stand of shallow water willows on the lake side.  I would estimate that this dam spanned about 150-yards.  Well, I thought, this certainly is not going to do.  Not only were the beavers cutting off my access to the property on the far side of the lake, they were also flooding out a good chunk of “big buck” brush and thickets.  And so it began, the Clark County Beaver War!

I sat there on the hillside for a good while; looking at the dam and contemplating the problem.  How in the world was I going to get rid of these beaver?  I tossed around the idea of trapping them and I still had a few months of legal beaver trapping left.  In our state the beaver trapping season runs from mid November until the end of March with no limit.  I had trapped in the past, but not for beaver.  My trapping had consisted of raccoon, muskrat, fox and an occasional mink or weasel.  I did not even own any traps big enough for beaver and was not familiar with the sets used to catch them.  That approach would take a little research and practice, besides, my home was an hour away from the property and it would be very time consuming to check and/or reset the traps every day.  So, maybe trapping wasn’t an option right now.  I thought about the problem a little longer and came up with the idea to break the dam in several places and see what happened.  Maybe if I could get the backed up water drained out, then the pesky little critters would move on.

With shovels in hand my hunting partner and I started across the dam to look for likely spots to make the breaks.  Who would have imagined it would have been such a job to accomplish!  If you have never tried to dismantle a beaver dam then you truly don’t realize what industrious builders and engineers these animals are!  From all appearances, the dam looked as if it were just a tall, thick wall of mud, about three feet wide at the base and rising up to a rounded top.  I had illusions of just shoveling the mud out of the way in a few places.  Well, I found a good spot to make the first break, pushed the shovel into the top of the dam and it just stopped two or three inches into the mud.  What!  I tried another spot nearby, same results.  Under the covering of mud was a very intricate maze of sapling size trees.  What I had initially envisioned as a simple task turned into hours of hard, sweating, manual labor!  Finally, tired and covered with mud, we had two good sized breaks in the dam and the water was gushing through.  We sat and watched it for awhile and the water was draining out so rapidly that you could actually see the water level dropping.  I had hoped to catch sight of a beaver or two as they swam out to investigate the problem but they apparently stayed safe and secure in their huts.

I spent most of the following week in great anticipation.  Had the beavers rebuilt the dam?  Had I gotten really lucky and they moved out?  I was soon to find out.  The weekend rolled around and Saturday morning found me looking at a freshly rebuilt dam.  Luckily the repairs they made were not done near as solidly as the original dam.  Shovels in hand, the breaks were reopened.  This process continued each weekend for several weeks, they would rebuild, and I would tear out what they rebuilt.  Finally, they stopped rebuilding.  Wow! I had won!  As persistent as they were, I never imagined they would just quit.  Several weeks went by with no signs of any rebuilding efforts.  Hooray, hooray!  Then one day I noticed what appeared to be water glistening through the dense jungle of willow trees.  No, surely not.  There should not be any water in that area, I must be seeing things.  But sure enough, those beavers hadn’t given up; they just relocated a couple of hundred yards up the creek that feeds the lake.  Oh no, here we go again! 

This time the dam was not easily accessible as it were previously.  With all the work taking place to get the land ready for fall food plot planting, I decided to let the beaver go for the time being.  Trapping during the winter might just be the best bet after all.  But I still had to make preparations for the task.  First on the list was to order a couple of conibear 330 traps.  I had used the 110 size before and had set them by hand.  When the traps arrived, I opened the box and, WOW, these things were absolutely huge!  I could tell by looking that there was no way, even if I were an Amazon Woman, that I was going to set these by hand.  So back to the catalog to order some trap setters.  In the meantime I put the 330’s in a large plastic tub filled with hot salt water.  I let them set in there for about a week to get the factory oil off and put a light rust coat on them.  The next step is to put a protective dye coating on the trap and the light rust will help the coating adhere.

Next, I scoured the internet for information on beaver sets.  I found some very useful sites with good descriptions and diagrams and a lot of information on beaver in general.  Did you know that the beaver is the largest member of the rodent family in Illinois and is present in every county in the state?  At one time they were thought to be extinct in the state and were reintroduced such as our whitetail deer were.  I think they have both thrived here!  An average beaver colony can be 12 to 15 beavers; they mate for life and the young stay with the parents until they are about two years old.  While browsing for information, I also found several accounts of other people’s beaver battles, and some of the accounts were very humorous to say the least!   As I am finishing this writing, the traps have been speed dipped and are hanging to dry.  The beaver have also continued to work, building several additional smaller dams and increasing the depth of the flooded area.  As I am very short, I am beginning to wonder if my hip waders are going to be enough to get me through the water!  But it is just a few weeks now until the season opens and the only thing left to do is to purchase my trapping license and wait!  Look out beaver…..here I come!!