AI-assisted research summary: This section restricts disturbing beaver dams or houses without a special permit, but allows certain landowners and officials to destroy beaver, remove dams, or install flow devices on controlled property for protection purposes.
I. No person shall destroy or disturb or interfere in any manner with the dams or houses of beaver, without first obtaining a special permit from the executive director. II. Notwithstanding paragraph I or any other provision of law or rule, a landowner, the landowner's agent, or any town or municipal or state official or employee, may destroy beaver, remove beaver dams, or install one or more flow devices on property under their control to protect property, public highways, or bridges from damage or submersion. The landowner or property owner shall be responsible for maintaining the flow device. Complete or partial dam removal or the installation or removal of a flow device shall be allowed without a permit under RSA 482-A if machinery does not enter the water and filling or dredging in or adjacent to surface water, wetlands, or their banks does not occur and shall be done in a gradual manner that does not allow a sudden release of impounded water so as to cause erosion, siltation, or a safety hazard downstream. II-a. For purposes of paragraph II, the term "flow device" means one or more fence structures or other combination of fencing and piping used to discourage beaver damming, maintain water flow through an existing beaver dam, or minimize the risk of flooding by preventing the further impoundment of water behind a beaver dam. III. The executive director may require the reporting of beaver taken pursuant to paragraph II by rules made in accordance with RSA 541-A. IV. Skins or unskinned carcasses taken under this section shall be sealed pursuant to RSA 210:8 before such skins or unskinned carcasses are sold or given away. V. The executive director or his agents shall provide advice relative to beaver control techniques when requested. Source: Source. 1939, 81:2. RL 244:10. 1943, 64:3. RSA 210:9. 1967, 441:3. 1988, 79:1. 1996, 228:42. 2009, 257:1, eff. Sept. 14, 2009. 2019, 125:1, eff. Aug. 24, 2019.