Wildlife advocates are backing a bill to ban the killing of beavers on Colorado public lands, while hunters and trappers point to the proposal and a flurry of recent actions as a concerted effort to block all hunting in the state.
Animal protection groups say there is currently no limit on how many beavers can be taken from state or federal land in Colorado, at a time when biologists and forestry experts are making beaver-created wetlands a keystone strategy in fighting the growing wildfire threat. House Bill 1323 would ban all private beaver kills on Colorado public lands. The bill language applies the ban to Colorado’s U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management acreage as well.
“Colorado is in a crisis. We have had increasing wildfires. We are in drought conditions. We have a historically low snowpack. And we need every ally we can get in this fight against increased wildfires and drought,” said Samantha Miller, a wildlife advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “As we know, Colorado is also in a budget crisis. We can have more beavers for free. They make fires harder to ignite and slower to spread, and they create those natural wet corridors that firefighters often use as breaks. And so the hope is, while we’re in a budget shortfall and while we are in a pretty desperate drought and wildfire situation, we can use these free allies to help us and protect us naturally.”
Hunting and trapping advocates, meanwhile, say bill supporters are subverting a monthslong series of stakeholder talks about tweaking hunting and trapping regulations simply because they couldn’t reach a consensus. They say the animal rights groups’ real long-term agenda, allegedly backed by Gov. Jared Polis, is to stop all taking of wild animals, pointing to the recently failed vote to ban mountain lion hunting and efforts to protect reintroduced gray wolves no matter the cost to ranchers.
The animal protection groups are also pushing Colorado Parks and Wildlife for a major overhaul of licensing and rules for commercial taking of furbearing animals. Commission hearings last week over that issue drew big crowds and raucous commentary in Westminster.
“Everything they do is an end around. They sat through those working group processes,” said Dan Gates, of the nonprofit hunting and trapping defenders Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management. “They advocated for them, they participated in them, and before they’re even at full completion, they want to circumvent them and try to turn around and invoke their will and their way and their perspective and their opinion on everything.”
The efforts have the support, Gates claimed, of Polis and his husband, Marlon Reis, who has advocated for animal welfare issues. “The governor is a lame-duck governor. He’s trying to accomplish what he wants to get done through the end of the session, and they’re doing everything they could possibly do,” Gates said.
The governor’s office countered Tuesday that Polis sees a place for everyone, including hunters and anglers, in Colorado’s outdoor life.
“The governor has not taken a position on this bill and will review the final version of the bill if it reaches his desk,” said Polis communications director Shelby Wieman. “Beavers are an important part of the conservation of Colorado’s streams and wetlands. Successful beaver restoration can improve watershed health and resilience and the governor fully supports the beaver restoration work and plan of CPW.”
The beaver protection bill comes, Gates said, at the same time the animal rights groups have successfully petitioned the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to ban commercial sales of furbearing animals or animal parts, such as beaver, bobcats, red foxes and pine martens. The beaver-focused legislation would apparently take the commercial use of beaver fur one step further and say beavers could not be taken from public lands for any reason.
The hunting, fishing and trapping advocates want “scientific” decisions on safe levels of harvest for various animal species to stay with the biologists at Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
“This is not something that you can manage on one end of wildlife management and then turn around and expect the legislature to engage,” Gates said.
CPW recently completed an overarching beaver management plan that did not contemplate a public lands ban on killing beavers, Miller acknowledged.
“The bill fills that gap by providing a clear public lands backstop that helps the strategy succeed,” she said.
Polis, his office said Tuesday, takes each animal and wildlife issue separately.
“While the governor didn’t have a position on the citizen petition (on furbearers) and doesn’t take positions on petitions, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff recommended opposing the petition, we are committed to working with stakeholders to craft a rule that supports sportsmen and women while conserving and restoring furbearer species in Colorado per the intent of the successful petition,” Wieman said.
Nor did Polis support the failed 2024 effort to ban mountain lion hunts, she added.
Advocacy on the beaver bill will likely intensify a yearslong wildlife and animal protection debate, amplified by emotions over the gray wolf reintroduction narrowly approved by state voters in 2020.
The hunting and trapping advocates’ warning of universal takings bans is a “fear-based talking point” used for fundraising, and “it’s fundamentally false,” said Miller, who counts herself an avid angler.
Every beaver counts as Colorado dries out from increasing heat and decreasing precipitation, Miller said. Meanwhile, not only are there no current limits on the number of beavers that can be taken, the state has no idea how many are shot or trapped because there’s no tracking system, she said.
“This proposal is specific: It protects beavers on public lands because removing even one beaver family can damage an entire wetland system and reduce watershed and wildfire resilience,” Miller said. “It strengthens Colorado’s beaver management strategy by preventing recreational take from undermining restoration goals.”
The bill, which was introduced in early March, has been assigned to the House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources Committee and is awaiting a hearing.