Take the WDFW beaver survey

[Humptulips]

I haven't done the survey or clicked on the link.
I do have mixed feelings about it though.
There was some beaver ponds I fished as a kid,not any more all gone now.
Convince me that leaving a few beaver is a bad thing..........

Sign in and take a look at the survey. It's up to you to decide how to fill it out or don't fill it out. There is plenty of room within the questions to be supportive of a good beaver population and still support trapping.
Skip to the last couple sections for a preview of how bad it could be for wildlife management if the ARs get their way.

[hunter399]

I haven't done the survey or clicked on the link.
I do have mixed feelings about it though.
There was some beaver ponds I fished as a kid,not any more all gone now.
Convince me that leaving a few beaver is a bad thing..........

Sign in and take a look at the survey. It's up to you to decide how to fill it out or don't fill it out. There is plenty of room within the questions to be supportive of a good beaver population and still support trapping.
Skip to the last couple sections for a preview of how bad it could be for wildlife management if the ARs get their way.

Done..........
Did survey.

[Mt.Beaver]

Done-    Animal Rights people are all great with wildlife until they have a problem.  May they be plagued with beavers flooding their land and chewing their trees, raccoon in their attics, and coyotes eating their cats and dogs. then they change their tune and call a trapper.

[grundy53]

Just took the survey. Seems like they have something in mind already and want validation.

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[Blacktail135]

 Done.

[Threewolves]

I took the survey. The wording of some of the questions are stacked against pro trapping. The last part "Are you interested in learning more about the following topic:" Solutions to beaver conflict that don't require lethal removal."

I recall: one nuisance job where beaver were so out of control they were chewing down small cedars and girdling large cedars in an attempt to down them. There was an extremely small stream on the edge of the property. Ten beaver were taken off that property. Put chain link around the bases of the trees and ended that problem.
Another, at a private lake, the beaver were chewing around the treated 4x4 deck posts, Another, a home owner had planted a pretty row of birch trees and even put split plastic poop pipe up the the trunks of the trees unfortunately not high enough. Another, a farmer pear trees were being chewed on, chain linked that an got permission to hunt elk. Not to mention culverts getting blocked and making lakes, but I regress. 

Fish and Wildlife just needs to go back through their files on nuisance beavers to figure this out. Use the old reports. Should be a no brainer, the more beavers the more problems. You can chain link, poop pipe, build pipe flows around dams, but it is not going to stop beaver from moving on to other locations or stop beaver from reproducing. There is so much wetland in Western Washington that there is always going to be beaver. Anti trappers act like if you take one beaver you killed them all. Seems like F&W just want to pacify the Anti's and keep the evil trapper on the down low just in case.   Don't get me started on moving beaver to make them someone else's problem.  Just my opinion, I could be right.   

[greenhead_killer]

Done. Some odd ball wording with the questions. Sounds like they’re trying to paint hunting/trapping to be a negative thing.

[idaho guy]

I haven't done the survey or clicked on the link.
I do have mixed feelings about it though.
There was some beaver ponds I fished as a kid,not any more all gone now.
Convince me that leaving a few beaver is a bad thing..........

 

I agree with you I always want to leave a few beavers around but I will also trap some beaver every year. No difference in trapping beaver or hunting deer just because you take a deer every year doesn’t mean all the deer will be gone next year. And I know as a hunter it’s important to you that deer are left “around” forever. Trappers are no different and majority absolutely won’t trap a place out unless it’s needed like a depredation job. I used to fish beaver ponds as a kid too good times 👍

[idaho guy]

Took the survey 👍 it didn’t ask what state I lived in ? But I did put lived 0 years in chehallis basin. Pretty anti trapping wording of the questions I think. Anyways I put in a good word for you. Hopefully you can get this out to a lot more like minded people the antis appear to have hit it hard from results I could see. Trap on fellow trappers!

[one more]

Done. 

Diane

[ucwarden]

Done and thanks for bringing that to our attention.

[sagemd]

I haven't done the survey or clicked on the link.
I do have mixed feelings about it though.
There was some beaver ponds I fished as a kid,not any more all gone now.
Convince me that leaving a few beaver is a bad thing..........

Controlling beaver populations is very important.
They are helpful in creating habit. But they can be victims for there success. They are rodents and breed like rodents.
Over population leads to there habit destruction, i.e. killing off alder and willow trees around ponds. They spread illness to each other.
You stated beaver ponds you fished as a kid are all gone.
Why are they all gone ??  I don't think trapping is the cause. As with most wildlife issues in Washington, lack of sound science based wildlife management is a problem for beavers. Trapping is the BEST conservation tool for beavers.
If you like beavers (beaver ponds) you should support beaver trapping.

[one more]

The first year we owned our property on a creek the beaver had built a dam and flooded a a mowed area of grass. Neighbors learned that I was going to trap and asked me to trap on their properties. They had flooded pastures and killed shade trees. That gave me about a mile of creek with two dams to trap.  I set traps and caught 11 beaver and a few muskrats, a couple otters, etc.  And a salmon that was uninjured and released.

I trapped the next few years and caught about the same numbers. In the following years I pulled my traps after they had caught 4 or 5 beaver each year.  The most interesting thing was finding many scars, punctures and infected wounds on the hides from the first two years.  The wounds were obviously from the big front teeth. Because of their over population they had to do a lot of fighting.  Those caught later didn't have so many wounds.

Most trappers don't want to catch them all.  We like to see them, too and trap some next year...

Diane