Most beaver damage is relatively easy to identify. Much of the damage is associated with or is a result of dam building, bank burrowing, tree cutting or flooding. Damage in urban areas includes cutting or girdling of ornamental and shade trees or shrubs. Because beavers are rodents with large sharp incisors, damage to trees appears as clean, knife-like cuts at a 45-degree angle. 

In rural areas, beavers may dam drainage ditches and small streams and plug drain pipes or culverts. This can lead to localized flooding of roads, timber lands or agricultural cropland.