The Winnebago County Board of Supervisors has doubled its bounty on beavers after having troubles with the animals building dams in their drainage districts. Farmers there have already removed a dam built into one drainage ditch and are hoping to catch the beaver before he builds another one.
Winnebago County Conservation Board Chairman Robert Schwartz says the beavers don’t waste time in reconstructing a dam. “You can tear out a dam and it’ll be back the next day, we’ve seen that, it’s not unusual. They says ‘busy as a beaver’ for a reason, they get a lot of work done in a short time,” Schwartz says.
He says the dams take time to remove because they are built of wood from the banks of the streams and rivers and sometimes even oak trees.
He says you generally find the soft woods along the streams, but they will cut down an oak tree and use it too.
Schwartz says relocating the beaver is not an option. “You know if it’s a wildlife species that’s maybe uncommon, protected or endangered, you might see some of that. But no, they aren’t going to relocate most common game species in Iowa,” Schwartz says.
The man who used to handle the beavers for the county retired and now the supervisors have doubles the beaver bounty to $50 as they look for trappers to catch the animals. The trapper has to bring in the tail of the beaver to the county auditor to collect the bounty.
(Reporting by A. J. Taylor KIOW/KHAM, Forest City/Britt)