Fact Sheet

Beaver Conservation and Coexistence Fact Sheet

Region

National

NCEL Point of Contact

Logan Christian
Wildlife and Habitat Specialist

Contact

Overview

Once numbering in the hundreds of millions across North America, beavers transformed their environment in profound ways, including by creating over 300,000 square miles of wetlands. Due to the immense commodification and trapping of beavers following European colonization, beavers were nearly driven to extinction. Today, beavers are slowly returning, providing much needed benefits including cost effective resilience to wildfires, droughts, and floods, improved water quality and quantity, creation and restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, and recreation opportunities. While beaver dams sometimes conflict with land uses and infrastructure, some states are addressing these conflicts through planning and solutions that maximize benefits for ecosystems, at-risk wildlife species, and people.

Key Points

Key Point 1

Beaver policies are most successful when developed collaboratively with state natural resource, agriculture, and transportation agencies, Tribal Nations, impacted landowners, conservation NGOs, hunters & trappers, and, when necessary, federal agencies.

Key Point 2

Many Indigenous peoples have lived with beavers since time immemorial and continue to uphold reciprocal relationships with beavers including helping facilitate their recovery.

Key Point 3

Many states allow unlimited take during beaver trapping season and conflict removal is allowed all year with no limits. While an important tool, unregulated trapping can make beaver restoration more challenging.

Policy Options

  • Statewide Beaver Management Plans (SBMP): Pennsylvania (2011) and Utah (2017) have established comprehensive SBMP’s, Wisconsin (2015) has a SBMP focused mainly on beaver control, and Montana (2021) and Oregon (2023) have Beaver Action Plans. California enacted legislation in 2024 codifying the need to develop a comprehensive SBMP, and Colorado is currently developing a comprehensive SBMP.
  • Nuisance Regulations and Beaver Relocation: Most states have nuisance wildlife regulations that outline processes for responding to wildlife conflicts. In 2012, Washington amended regulations to authorize, with agreement from property owners, the trapping and relocating of beavers to appropriate areas.
  • Beaver Classifications and Trapping Regulations: Many states classify beavers as pests and allow for their unlimited trapping. In 2023, Oregon removed the classification of beavers as a “predatory animal”, authorized a permitting and reporting process for beaver trapping, and encouraged non-lethal beaver coexistence strategies.Funding for
  • Non-Lethal Coexistence: In 2023, California allocated $2 million for a grant process to promote beaver coexistence and non-lethal deterrents to beaver damage. Oregon and Minnesota recently introduced similar measures.

Resources

NCEL Resources

Fact Sheet

State Wildlife Agency Authority and Mission Fulfillment Fact Sheet

September 14, 2023

Infographic

The Five Main Drivers of Wildlife Decline

May 21, 2021

Online Resources

Wildlife Agency Relevance and Funding Webpage

NCEL's page on state action to increase efficiency within state wildlife agencies.

Go to resource
Endangered Species Webpage

NCEL's webpage on state policies to protect endangered species by addressing habitat loss, overexploitation, climate change and more.

Go to resource
Wildlife Coexistence and Conflict Reduction Webpage

NCEL's page on ways states can prevent needless conflict between wildlife and people.

Go to resource
The Beaver Institute

The premier national organization focused on beaver conservation.

Go to resource
The Beaver Restoration Guidebook Version 2.02 (2023)

US Fish and Wildlife Service's report on beaver restoration.

Go to resource

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