CAROLINE'S CORNER: ENDANGERED SPECIES AGAIN?

Beavers were probably the most hunted animals in North America from the 1600s through the 1800s. The pioneers and Indians ate beaver meat and traded furs for things they needed. Trading companies shipped beaver fur throughout the world to be made into coats or hats.

Beaver pelts sold for $6 each in peak years, enabling trappers to make $1,000 per season. John Jacob Astor monopolized the upper Missouri Valley fur trade and made himself the richest man in America.

Beavers were almost exterminated, but my father-in-law thinks they have returned with a vengeance.

Boulware Sr. would consider himself the richest man in America if he could rid his lake of beavers. The lake, dotted with water lilies and inhabited by an unknown number of 'gators, five ducks and three geese, is located in south Georgia. To a person who grew up in hillbilly country, the lake, with its cypress trees, cypress knees and Spanish moss, might appear to be a swamp.

Boulware Sr. has been engaged in this ongoing battle with the beavers since he retired 20 years ago. The lake was to be his place to get away from it all and to commune with nature and his ducks and geese. But the beavers keep changing his lake and his plans.

Boulware Sr. has studied the furry creatures in his effort to win the war with them.

"I read articles in the paper and magazines," he said. "Sometimes there are TV shows about beavers."

He knows about beaver family groups and colonies. He knows that when the beaver child is 2 years old, it is forced out and has to start its own colony. He knows that a whole beaver family and sometimes beavers from other colonies may join forces in building a dam.

At first he tried to drag out the dam with a box blade and tractor.

"The brought in new stuff and built another dam that night," he said. "They had to have help from other colonies. I think they even enlisted foreign aid."

Next Boulware Sr. tried beaver traps. "I put out three beaver traps and caught seven of the creatures," he said. "That night they moved out further from that dam and built one all the way across the pond.

"I strung electric fence wire where they were building the dam," he continued. "They used the wire to help build the dam. The only thing I could guess is that their fur is so thick, the electricity could not get through."

Boulware Sr. had read that beavers have two kinds of fur -- short, soft underfur and long, heavy guard hairs.

The frustrated gentlemen tried a big flood light, since he knew that beavers prefer to work at night. "They stayed away two nights and then they used the light to work by," he said.

Loud rock music was not the answer.

"They stayed away three nights and then they danced as they gnawed," he lamented.

Boulware Sr. is currently trying and electric varmint deterrent to rid his lake of the unwelcome guests. Since this device is only effective above water, it most likely will not solve the problem. Boulware Sr. knows a beaver can swim underwater for a half mile and hold its breath for 15 minutes. A colony of busy beavers, plus their surrounding colony of neighbors and foreign friends, can do a lot of damage in 15 minutes.

The warrior knows that beavers are noted for their engineering feats, but he did not know of their perseverance. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley said, "Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight in cleverness."

I have taken a "wait and see" approach to see who has more perseverance and more cleverness -- the beavers or the grandfather of my children.

His wife's only comment is, "For 20 years he has been as busy as a beaver, trying to get rid of beavers."

His only comment is, "If anyone in these 50 states knows how to get rid of beavers, please let me know."

After all this, my only comment is, "Which is the endangered species, Boulware Sr. or the beavers?"

Caroline simpson's human interest stories and columns appear in other Rust Communications newspapers.