Beavers can stay in Papillion lake — for now, city says; a rare treat for wildlife lovers

Walk down to the shore of Walnut Creek Lake before dawn, and you could be greeted by a loud “pop” — like the oar of a rowboat smacking flat on the water.

A beaver has spotted you.

Several of the large rodents have taken up residence in the Papillion lake, providing area residents with a rare opportunity to observe them.

While the animals themselves can be elusive, their handiwork is plain to see along the shoreline.

These suburban critters have been busy.

At the water’s edge, there’s a kind of a woody graveyard. Multiple trees bear their signature teeth marks, the trunks surrounded by piles of wood shavings. Some trees, gnawed through, have crashed to the ground. Others still stand precariously despite being girdled around the trunk. Last year, after beavers girdled a large tree close to the walking trail, park workers completed the job with a chainsaw to eliminate the risk of it falling on someone.

City officials say the beavers are causing no significant harm to the lake or its structures. Park Superintendent Mike Cunningham said the city has no immediate plans to trap them.

That means metro-area wildlife lovers, who are sufficiently stealthy in early morning or late evening, have an opportunity to see the secretive creatures.

Last November, Cunningham considered trapping the beavers after the number of downed trees started to rise.

But he’s going to wait a while.

Once spring weather moves in, the number of visitors to the lake will go “sky high,” he said.

The surge of people could cause the beavers to leave on their own to find a better habitat for the summer, he said.

The beavers haven’t yet taken any trees that were of significant value to the park, and are having a positive impact by clearing brush by the lake edge that city workers would otherwise have to cut, Cunningham said.

Occasionally, city workers employ a large brush cutter to whack away at the saplings and brush that sprout by the lake shore. That is done to improve sight lines within the recreation area.

“He’s doing it for us,” Cunningham said. “They feed on the softer woods, so the willow trees, cottonwoods, Siberian elms ... Everything else he pretty much leaves alone.”

If the beavers run out of forage along the shore, Cunningham expects they will branch out farther to find trees.

So far, however, the beavers are generally staying at the south and west ends of the lake, where there’s less human activity and more trees, he said. They’ve largely stayed away from the north end, where the dam, main parking lots and fishing pier are located.

“We’ve been watching the inlets, the outlets, and I haven’t seen any problems from them,” Cunningham said. “Other than they’re doing great things to increase the visibility of the lake.”

It’s no accident that the beavers found Walnut Creek to their liking.

Cunningham said the management approach at the lake has been more “hands-off” than at the other Papillion lakes the city manages, an approach that has resulted in a more natural habitat.

“We try not to intervene and be very, very passive,” he said.

The management approach at the other lakes — Prairie Queen, Big Elk and Portal — has been different.

For example, at Prairie Queen the native grasses get mowed or hayed every year.

“It’s not quite as passive,” he said.

Nonetheless, there is some evidence that beavers appreciate that lake as well. A visitor can observe beaver-felled trees and dens.

Sam Wilson, furbearer biologist for the Nebraska Department of Game and Parks, said beavers are useful for creating habitat that benefits other animals, making the beavers a sort of keystone species. Damming waterways creates still waters used by amphibians, invertebrates, otters and fish, he said.

They also can cause significant problems for people, blocking ditches and culverts or flooding cornfields, he said.

Wilson said they need to be managed through a number of methods, including lethal control. Nebraska has a trapping season on beavers, which allows people to harvest pelts and control the animals, he said.

“It’s kind of a complicated story because they can cause these issues with people. But certainly, you watch a beaver working, sit over a beaver pond and watch all the different birds and waterfowl and animals that use it, it’s interesting.”

When they tail-slap the water, they alert other beavers of a threat in the area — but they also alert the intruder that they’re on to them.

Beavers are not rare in Nebraska, Wilson said. They’re generally found statewide anywhere there’s appropriate habitat, he said. That means just about anywhere where a woodland is adjacent to water, such as along the Platte, Niobrara and Loup Rivers, he said.

Their numbers have bounced back from the days when European settlers trapped them for the fur trade, he said.

“That really reduced their numbers historically, but they are back in almost every state that had them in the past and doing really well,” he said.

Beaver pelts were used to make felt hats and clothing. Also, the beaver has glands called castor glands, which can be used in making perfume.

Currently the trapping season runs from Nov. 1 to the end of March.

In Nebraska during the 2021-22 season, about 8,500 beavers were harvested, he said.

“The fur market was doing pretty well 10 years ago or so, but it’s been really down the last few years,” he said. “A lot of beavers are trapped because they’re nuisance animals, so they’re causing structural problems or they’re flooding a farmer’s field, that sort of thing.”

Local fur-buyers may buy pelts for art, souvenirs and clothing, while other pelts are shipped to Canada. There, they go into international fur markets where they’re used for clothing.

Beavers can be hard to spot during the day, but they can occasionally be seen working on their dens. Like deer, they are often active at dawn, dusk and night.

Sometimes people confuse beavers and muskrats. Wilson said a key difference is that beavers are much larger, 20 to 60 pounds, while muskrats are small, just a few pounds.

Another difference is the tail. Beavers have broad, flat tails like a boat oar, while muskrats have a rat-like tail.

Both can be seen cruising along in the water with their heads above the surface.

The City of Papillion has trapped nuisance beavers in Halleck Park in the past, said Parks Director Tony Gowan.

Officials haven’t had any lately, but a few years ago, a beaver took aim at a cottonwood with a 2½-foot diameter trunk, he said.

“He didn’t get all the way through it, but enough to where we had to fell it, so it would be safe,” Gowan said. “We eventually had to have him trapped.”

Early spring is a good time to spot a beaver.

The trees and bushes haven’t leafed out yet, and the beavers haven’t yet fully retreated into their nocturnal routine.

They are wary, though, and will sound the alarm when danger approaches. The loud “pop” of their tail can startle the unsuspecting visitor.

For now, Cunningham said, the beavers at Walnut Creek Lake offer a rare educational opportunity.

“You can’t put a price on that,” he said.