Beaver pelts were in high demand in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Entire companies revolved around fur trading. The North West Company was such business. It was headquartered in Montreal, but had extensive operations in what is now North Dakota. Some other significant companies were the Hudson Bay Company and the American Fur Company. In their fervor, these businesses didn’t care about overtrapping. In fact, they would often purposefully do so in certain areas to create “beaver deserts” to avert other companies from moving in.
These practices had huge effects, and by 1900, the population of beaver dwindled, and North Dakota began regulating beaver trapping. Between 1905 and 1921 there were occasional open seasons, with complete protection from 1921 to 1931. In 1931 they started a permit harvesting system that remained in effect until open season was declared again in 1952. At the start of that period, beaver populations were high in the Missouri drainage basin in southwestern North Dakota. However, in the 1930s beaver populations were sparse or absent in northern and eastern parts of the state. The North Dakota State Game and Fish Department started a live-trap and transplant program to bring beavers into these areas. They started in 1934, but the bulk of the live-trapping was done by Alvin Momb between August 1943 and October 1951. During that time, 466 beavers were trapped and released in 53 of North Dakota’s counties.
To assess the effectiveness of this approach, Momb tagged 96 beavers between May 16, 1947 and October 13, 1948 and 59 beavers were tagged between July 17, 1952 and July, 1955. They recovered 18 of these beavers and found most of them had traveled short distances, marking the program a success. For instance, beaver 112 was tagged around this date in 1952 and found again on July 21st the following year, having traveled only 3 ⁄ 4 of a mile. Others, like one tagged on June 23rd, 1947, and found again five years later, had traveled 32 miles along a stream. The average stream distance traveled by beavers was 9.1 miles. So, if you come across a beaver in the northern or eastern parts of North Dakota, you can probably thank Alvin Momb and the other live-trappers.
Dakota Datebook by Lucid Thomas
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