When our lake was first built, I thought it would be interesting to have a resident family of beavers. Since a person cannot go to the local pet store or livestock auction and buy beavers, I only hoped a pair would wander in.

It did not take too many years, and that is exactly what happened. Riding along one of the tributaries that feeds the lake, I noticed a few trees that had been cut down by beavers. I was thrilled to have beavers to watch.

A few weeks later while passing through the same area, I noticed every oak, hickory and ash tree from the creek bank to part way up the hill had been cut down. The only trees remaining were honey locust with their horrible long thorns.

See now I can already see how this is going to end, but I can’t help appreciating how it starts. This is Iowa we’re talking about and we’re definitely grading on a curve.  I would even expect them to be kindly welcomed and I’m sure the beavers themselves know what they’re up against. It’s nice that he started with appreciation,

 The following spring, my love of the beavers is starting to turn to hate. When it rained, water started going over their dam. This caused them to raise their dam’s level by a couple of feet. This caused water to back up, flooding the crossing that enables me to get from one side of the farm to the other. Without this crossing, I must drive around by way of the road, about three miles, which is annoying.

The lake has an outlet culvert about 36 inches in diameter. When the lake gets above normal level, excess water runs out through this tube. After a heavy rain, the beavers found this and thought it unacceptable to lose water. They promptly cut dozens of logs, approximately 42 inches long and wedged them in the tube. They finished their job by sealing it over with a mud and grass mixture.

Water backed up close to a mile. The neighbors were complaining about their pastures and hay fields being flooded. Removing wedged in logs, mud and grass while lying on my stomach on top of a cement culvert is not as easy as one would think. It is also terrifying to think, at any moment, their plug might give way and suck a person through the tube. My annoyance was giving way to a strong dislike for my furry guests.

Well the honeymoon’s over. We all knew it would be soon enough. You know how it is. You find Brenda’s laugh charming at first when you’re sharing a soda at the mall, but when she can’t sit through mass with your aunt Olive without cracking a smile you know this thing has run its course.

One day I noticed beaver activity off the one corner of the island. First, they brought a few logs from upstream and started a new house at the island. They then started cutting down the trees on the island and cutting them into 42-inch lengths.

They were working at plugging the drainage tube again and were only one tree away from cutting down my flowering pear. My attitude toward the beavers suddenly turned to hate.

It was surprisingly easy to live trap and re-locate the pair. When they went in to block to overflow, they walked right into the trap.

Beavers, with all their industrious ways and construction abilities, are interesting to watch. They can also be destructive to the point of turning a person’s fascination with them to a strong dislike.

Well who in Iowa will blame you? You were inconvenienced. Having to drive a WHOLE three miles out of your way and deal with their daily disruptions. I mean it’s not like you looked for answers first before arriving at this decision. It’s not like you wrote me first and asked what we did and how to do it in Iowa. And it’s not like you learned anything at all about live trapping or successful beaver release before you stuffed them in a box and whisked them away.

But it’s slightly better that you enjoyed watching them at first. I guess.