Contact Information

Thomas Poe Cooper Building 730 Rose Street Lexington, KY 40546-0073

Prevention and Control of Beaver Problems

Prevention and Control of Beaver Problems

Beavers are classified as furbearing animals in the state of Kentucky. An open trapping season is established for the legal harvesting of these animals, and they are subject to all applicable state laws and regulations. Consult the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife's trapping digest for more information on removal of beavers during the legal trapping season.

If a beaver is damaging your property, you can kill the animal at times other than the legal trapping season. After the animal has been destroyed, you must contact your local conservation officer for disposal of the carcass.

If the beaver pond has been in existence for a considerable period of time (even if it is flooded cropland), the area may be officially classified as a wetland. Under the provisions of the 1985 Food Security Act, Conservation Reserve Provision, it may be illegal to destroy the dam and drain the wetland. Contact the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Louisville or your local Agricultural and Soil Conservation Service, Soil Conservation Service or Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources office for an on-site visit and recommendation. 

   

Click on one of the links below to learn more about beaver control.

Nonleathal Prevention and Control

Lethal Control

Beaver dam

Beaver Dams

If the beaver pond has been in existence for a while (even if it is flooded cropland), the area may be officially classified as a wetland, making it illegal to destroy it.

Larger dam

Larger Dams

It is against the law in Kentucky to destroy or harm a beaver lodge or den. There are innovative ways to discourage beavers. See nonleathal prevention.

Clogged area

Clogged Drain

Beavers may dam drainage ditches, small streams or plug drain pipes/culverts leading to flooding of roads, timber lands or agricultural cropland.

Nonlethal Prevention

Learn ways to discourage beavers from maintaining dams on your property.

Nonlethal Ways

Lethal Controls

The only lethal control method that works well is trapping.

Lethal Control

Contact Information

Thomas Poe Cooper Building 730 Rose Street Lexington, KY 40546-0073