Oregon hires some really stupid people, and we pay them a whole lot for being stupid. They can't handle even basic stuff. That's because they're stupid.
Over in the little town of Newberg, they think they have a problem with beavers. Of course, since the story comes from KATU, it's fairly suspect - KATU rarely seems to get any story right. But for the moment, let's assume that they're dealing accurately with the issue.
According to the KATU brain-trust, beavers have been busily damming up a creek that runs through town, with the result that erosion may threaten a road, which may cause the road to collapse, and which will break a water line that services a large part of the town. According to the KATU story, Newberg had the state trapper come out and kill some of the beavers, which caused some sort of kerfluffel among residents. And of course, the state trapper approach didn't actually work.
What a surprise.
At my last place, with a big yard sloping down to a creek, beavers moved in, and built a dam. No problem for me. But as the pond backed up, I got a visit from a neighbor a couple of doors upstream, who was very upset about "my beavers". It seemed that the pond had flooded his garden, and they were taking down some of his trees. I advised the neighbor on how to protect his trees, and then looked into the pond issue.
Portland didn't want to do anything about them, nor did the county, nor the state. Interesting.
Nobody wanted to relocate the beavers, so I was on my own. This is one of many reasons that underly my fundamental distrust of government and their myriad agencies. They really aren't there to help you.
But I'm okay with that; I'm fairly self-sufficient.
The first thing of actual importance, when it comes to dealing with beavers, is that you have to be a little bit smarter than they are. This is why government cannot effectively deal with beavers, or with many other issues, for that matter.
Beavers respond to the sound of running water, which is why their dams get higher and longer over time.
So here is the issue: I don't mind having beavers in the back yard, but I have a neighbor who is royally upset because the pond drowns his garden (my suggestion for saving the remaining trees worked).
Obviously, the solution is to maintain their pond at a level that will stop short of the neighbor's garden plot. How do you do that? Can you come up with a solution that works, or should you be working for a government agency? Here's a hint: if you chop through the dam, beavers will repair the damage overnight. So that won't work.
Don't you think that highly-paid government workers could figure this out? If they can't, then maybe we don't need them.