One day the homeowner's pickup truck literally sank up to its windows after the ground, weakened by beaver tunnels, simply collapsed. A creek is stopped up by a beaver dam on Columbia Road in Columbia County. Trapping laws in both Georgia and South Carolina require that traps be checked daily. No bait is required for beaver trapping, although Bowers sometimes uses scents to make the rodents more comfortable when they approach the traps, which are anchored to nearby trees with aircraft cable. Beaver pelts are of high quality.
Some trappers market the hides.
Bowers gives his beavers to a friend who tans them to make clothing. Beavers are North America's largest rodents, weighing 40 to 60 pounds. The world record beaver, weighing 110 pounds, was caught in Wisconsin in 1921. The Giant Beaver that inhabited North America during prehistoric times weighed 900 pounds and was nine feet long. The sound of running water incites beavers to build dams.