Trapping Beaver

Wanted: Alive or Dead?
Beavers can be either live trapped or kill trapped.  Depending on the local laws in your area, certain trapping methods or permits and licensing may be required to legally trap this animal. Various body-gripping traps, cage traps, and conibears all work well as beaver traps.

Read the Landscape

There are many factors to consider when laying traps for beaver.  Sometimes the best location is underwater, other times up on the shore.  A professional trapper can determine what locations are most likely to be effective for your particular landscape. 

Trapping is not the same as hunting.  Hunters need only to get the target animal in their sights and within range.  With beaver trapping, the trapper must either find or provide a reason for the animal to step into the trap, which sometimes is only a few inches square.  Reading the landscape is an important part of this process.

Why trap beavers?
Some people trap beavers to get rid of a nuisance animal that is destroying their property.  Others go beaver trapping to harvest their pelts.  Demand for beaver fur fluctuates, but for many trapping beavers is a livelihood or a side business.
 
Generally speaking, beavers are good for the environment.  Their dams slow streams, creating new wetlands where many species of plants and animals can thrive.  Unfortunately, sometimes beaver dams also cause a lot of havoc.  They can flood fields of crops, wash out roads, and destroy expensive or old trees.  When this happens, it is time to trap beavers.