Beavers in Missouri

I was talking with a landowner the other day about nuisance beaver removal near Joplin, MO, and that got me thinking about how important the beaver has been throughout Missouri’s history. So I did a little research and thought you might enjoy learnign more about Missouri's Beavers.

Today Missouri’s beavers live their lives in relative obscurity. The beavers’ primarily nocturnal routines keep them out of most people’s views and concerns. The only time beavers are usually noticed is when the two most obvious signs of their existence, dams and tree-chewing, cause problems for humans. However, a look at the history books will show beavers didn’t always have such a low profile. It could be argued very easily that beavers literally put Missouri on the map as a state.

In the 1700s, it was an interest in beaver pelts that lured the first explorers and settlers to the land that would become Missouri. In 1763, a desire to control the beaver pelt trade led Pierre Laclede and Auguste Choteau to found the trading post of St. Louis at the strategically located convergence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. In less than 100 years, the beaver pelt trade had transformed the small fort of St. Louis into the fur-trading capital of the world. In the early years of statehood, the trade in beaver pelts pumped millions of dollars into Missouri, thus ensuring that the state’s fledgling economy got off to a strong start.

Historically, beavers were abundant across most of North America. Naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton estimated the pre-settlement population at six million, though his figure could have been no more than a wild guess. Regardless, there were plenty of beavers. Beaver hats were the rage in the early 1800s. The fur was combed and kneaded into felt that was blocked into a high hat. Beaver coats were (and are) warm and comfortable. The beaver was the currency of early America, more so than gold itself. In 1763, the trading post established by Pierre Laclede and August Chouteau at present-day St. Louis was the world's largest fur collection point. The Hudson's Bay Company and other early trading outfits (including Missouri's own St. Louis Fur Company) set up outposts to outfit fur trappers as the trappers followed beaver populations across the country. Sewell Newhouse invented the steel trap in 1823, giving trappers a potent weapon that was far superior to deadfalls, snares and other relatively primitive methods of taking furbearers. Trapping was big business. One expedition in 1823-24 consisted of 55 men, 25 women and 64 children. They had 75 guns, 212 beaver traps and 332 horses, plus ammunition, clothing and trading goods. About 20 were actual trappers. The expedition traveled more than 1,300 miles to reach trapping grounds. The trappers were credited with taking 5,000 beavers. Trapping was a harsh and dangerous life, but the rewards were irresistible; a good trapper could make more than $15 a day, compared with a half-dollar a day working on a farm.

By 1915 beavers were all but exterminated in Missouri. It’s kind of hard to believe now that a furbearer as common as the beaver is today was almost absolutely gone from the state. In 1928-29, the old Missouri Game and Fish Department stocked six pairs of northern beavers in Dent County, and by the mid-1930s those had increased to an estimated 75 to 100. But, even with that success, University of Missouri professor Rudolf Bennitt and his student Werner Nagel seemed pessimistic in a 1934 historic survey of wildlife. Bennitt and Nagel reported fewer than 200 beavers in Missouri in the mid-1930s and, though they didn't say so, you get the feeling they believed beavers would never again be more than a curiosity or a museum creature. Beaver restoration began with painful slowness. Then in 1939 beavers were added to the same trap and transplant program that restored deer and wild turkeys in Missouri. The Conservation Department trapped surplus animals from 1939 to 1955 and relocated them to suitable, but empty, habitat. Once reintroduced, beavers thrived in their new habitats. In 1948, there were an estimated 301 colonies statewide; only six years later the number had jumped to nearly 6,000. The population of beavers in Missouri is now wide spread and still growing

Once considered a valuable economic resource for their fur, beaver are no longer trapped in significant numbers, which has resulted in a growing population throughout the Nation’s watersheds. While American beaver can produce significant environmental benefits, they can also create safety hazards and cause significant damage. Beaver activity jeopardizes millions of dollars in transportation infrastructure and can also cause significant damage to timber resources. Alabama alone estimates $19 million in lost timber annually due to beaver.

Beaver create their own habitat or alter habitats to meet their needs. Beavers are probably most known for the lodges they build and the ponds they create by building dams made of sticks, mud, and rocks across small streams. Missouri beavers don’t build lodges as often as beavers residing elsewhere on the continent. Most beavers in Missouri build their homes in stream banks, presumably because they instinctively know the fluctuating water levels of many area waterways make lodges impractical. The typical Missouri beaver bank den consists of a chamber between two feet and three feet across and one to two feet high and situated above normal water level. It is reached through a tunnel 12 inches to 18 inches in diameter and 12 to 50 feet in length. The tunnel’s entrance is usually below water level. Where beavers build lodges, those structures may be up to seven feet high and 40 feet in diameter.

There is a single chamber inside that’s four feet to five feet wide and approximately three feet high.

It would be hard to describe a beaver as intelligent. "Plodding" and "dogged" spring more quickly to mind. Beavers have a single-minded determination to do what beavers do. A beaver has to chew. Their four front gnawing teeth constantly grow, and they must wear them down by chewing. Beavers figure out ways to alter habitats to fit their needs. There is some ingenuity, but mostly it's persistence. American beaver are well-known for their dam-building skills. For beaver, culverts under highways can provide an engineering shortcut. When beaver build small dams across culverts, they convert the highway’s foundation into a dam. These dams save the beaver significant time and effort; however, most highways are not designed to withstand the water’s force, so such conditions can lead to the road’s total collapse. Flooding from beaver ponds can cover large areas, depriving property owners of their use. Athletic fields, yards, croplands, timberlands, and access roads are just some of the locations where beaver ponds can create access and use problems. Utility companies often are negatively impacted by beaver pond flooding, which damages infrastructure and limits access to sites. Beaver cut down trees for food and for building materials. On large trees, beaver will feed by removing all the bark within easy reach around the tree. This prevents moisture and nutrients from moving from roots to leaves and causes the tree to die. Other trees are lost due to rising water levels behind the beaver dam. Some species of trees can thrive in such conditions, but most cannot. When beaver remove large numbers of even small trees from a shoreline, the result can be erosion of stream banks and a rise in water temperature from exposure to sunlight. Increased water temperatures can change the ecological dynamics of a stream. Additionally, fallen trees and beaver ponds can alter the spawning of native fish. The headwaters of streams can be blocked completely, preventing fish from reaching their traditional spawning grounds.

One thing is certain beavers are not going to change their habits. A beaver doesn't know (nor care) what damage to property a dam or a fallen tree will do. Your cherished ornamental is just another building block to the beaver, and your bottom land cornfield is a potential beaver pond. Although, the pond itself may become an important resting place for waterfowl it will no longer be useful for agriculture. Beaver ponds change an entire ecosystem, eliminating some species, encouraging others. If you have beavers on your property it is important to continually monitor their activity and take some preventive measures to ensure that your beaver population doesn't become a problem. Schedule an appointment today, if you would like one of our wildlife technicians to help you evaluate your beaver population. We can assist you with nuisance beaver removal, habitat modification and management plan. Schedule an appointment today!

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