Beavers

[Duncan Cheslett]

Beavers are native to the UK, but were hunted to extinction some 400 years ago. They are being reintroduced in many parts of Europe, because of their positive impact on the environment.


https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-and-wild-places/saving-species/beavers

Golf courses with rivers are prone to flooding. Beavers could conceivably be part of the solution to this. Do any of our US friends have any experience of beaver activity on or around golf courses?

[Dave McCollum]

Yes, we have experience.  We consider them pests.  We prefer to control our water flows and tree trimming and not let the beavers have their say about where we want wetlands.  We have nothing against beavers.  They are just very hard to catch and relocate without injuring or killing them.  They can grow quite large.  I've seen some that are over 60 lbs. 

[Tom_Doak]

I've heard anecdotes about one or two courses where a beaver dam backed up a stream that ran through the course, and presented flooding problems on the course.  In which case they are hard to deal with from a regulatory standpoint.

[MCirba]

Oh...nevermind.

[Thomas Dai]

This GCA thread about beavers from fairly recently may be of relevance -


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,65657.msg1567471.html#msg1567471


Atb

[Ryan Coles]

Delete please

[Tommy Williamsen]

Shucks, I thought the discussion changed to skiing at Arraphoe Basin and the new slopes.

[Eric Hammerbacher]

I am not a fan...a very angry beaver just chased me off a river that I was fly-fishing the other night.  Around here rabid ones have been known to attack kayakers.  I can't imagine golfers noticing them or coming into contact with them very often.

[Greg Chambers]

I had beavers on my course.  They wreaked havoc on the low lying back nine.  The creek would overtop it’s banks, due to their dams.  Just another example of golf coexisting with nature.

[Ian Andrew]

You'll appreciate this video taken TODAY from a Toronto course called Cedar Brae ....

https://twitter.com/CedarBraeGolf/status/1005892251501957120

[Dan Herrmann]

We had beavers at the course I play.   Built a dam on a flowing creek and had offspring.


It was really cool, but was a huge mess.  Our next door neighbor saw his property turned into a beaver pond.   A path to our 3rd green was very close to being flooded.


The head greenkeeper waited until legal beaver season and hired a trapper.  Papa beaver was 45 pounds.


We now have beavers in another area - time will tell if they enhance or destroy the land.

[ward peyronnin]

Canadian Geese were hunted close to extinction here and designated a threatened species.
Can we send you ours?