Last spring, members of Alaska's Troop 34, based in Fairbanks, trudged   out into the snowy wilderness to take part in their state's Take a Kid Trapping program. In many parts of the state, beavers  are pests and need to be controlled. The 10-to-12-year-old girls found out where beavers lived, set traps, and skinned the two animals they caught. The girls hope to catch ten more beavers so that the entire troop can make mittens and hats with the fur. They also want to cook beaver meat. Troop leaders and members say the Scouts are doing a good deed by helping control the state's beaver population. But animal-rights activists say trapping is cruel. They want the Girl Scouts to stop in their tracks. Beavers aren't only causing a problem in Alaska. Residents in Sampson County, N.C., have turned to a local committee to help them battle the growing beaver population there. County landowners are frustrated after the county spent more than $ 50,000 in eight years trying to reduce the beaver population through a government program. The joint state and federal program included paying money to trappers for every beaver carcass they trapped. Many local residents say that the program didn't work because there were too few trappers. That's why the county set up its own committee to investigate other ways to control the area's beaver population. The county will rely on its own beaver-trapping program. It has hired a trapper to set traps in various areas. The county will pay $10 for every beaver carcass. Why do many people say that beavers are a nuisance? For beavers to survive, they need lots of water. Water provides the large rodent  with a place to hide from meat - eating animals. Beavers also store food underwater for the winter. When there's not enough water in a particular area, beavers get busy building dams. Beaver dams can cause major flooding and damage to the surrounding countryside as the animals cut down trees to use in their construction projects. Beavers build canals to transport heavy objects. Local residents hate beavers because they can   _  .
cause damage to dams block up canals with heavy objects. do great harm to construction projects. badly damage the environment and cause floods.