Beavers can be seen as pests by many farmers, the Farmers’ Almanac has called them a “Pest of the Month”, and offers several ways to mitigate the damage they believe beavers cause: flooding and tree cutting. Luckily they no longer recommended hunting them or trapping them. “The best strategy is to … try to live in relative peace”, says Shawn Weeks, who writes for the Farmers’s Almanac.

Some people have claimed that beavers pose a healthy and safety threat but recent research has shown other human factors are more likely the cause.

Beavers Are Conservationists:

• Their dams mitigate floods.
• They increase the flow of streams and rivers in the summer.
• Beaver ponds increase water recharge and clean the water.
• They sequester carbon during and after their stay in an area.
• Biological diversity is increased by their activities.
• Beavers provide a wide variety of benefits to an ecosystem.

Designer: Victoria Malabrigo

Learn more about beavers with more Wildlife Facts.

Sources:

“Pest of the Month: Beavers – Farmers’ Almanac.” The Farmers Almanac RSS. N.p., 18 Mar. 2012. Web. 17 May 2016.
“What to Do About Beavers.” The Humane Society of the United States, n.d. Web. 17 May 2016.