Once regarded as a nuisance, beavers have been recognized by researchers as critical for healthy watersheds, a role especially relevant to lakes, streams and rivers of the San Juan Mountains.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife briefed commissioners on the agency’s draft Beaver Conservation and Management Strategy. The plan has been in the works for years and is intended to guide policy on conservation, hunting, co‑existence and translocation tactics.
During a Jan. 14 commissioners meeting, CPW’s Brian Dreher said the agency began developing the plan in 2024 in response to rising public interest.
“Renewed interest has been seen across the country. Other states are working on beaver management strategies,” said Dreher, who serves as assistant director for the terrestrial wildlife branch.
American beaver populations collapsed dramatically in earlier centuries. CPW estimates that hundreds of millions were wiped out as widespread fur trapping and conflicts with landowners drove the species to near extinction.
The keystone species is now regarded for playing a crucial role in the ecosystem by helping restore wetlands. Land experts say this, in turn, can help mitigate damage from wildfires, drought and flooding.
Alongside proposed hunting regulation updates, CPW staff note that beavers frequently become involved in human‑caused conflicts, including dam‑building and tree‑felling, that may affect land use and infrastructure.
Dreher emphasized the need to “address a wide range of stakeholder interests” in the plan.
“I will say, it’s not all ubiquitous, one thing doesn’t work everywhere. In our situation, beaver management strategies have been 100% successful,” said Commissioner Dallas May of Lamar.
May said non‑lethal “beaver‑deceivers,” designed to prevent beavers from clogging culverts, have been effective and low maintenance.
“Beavers on our ranch have created massive underground water storage. There’s misconceptions out there about what beavers do,” he said. “The water that’s stored underground more than compensates for the evaporation of surface water in the pond.”
Any resulting regulations will be proposed with the furbearer species agenda items in March and are slated for adoption in May.
Brian Sullivan, wetlands program coordinator, also presented on the plan at the Jan. 14 meeting.
Rather than aiming for a single statewide population number, he said the plan proposes an occupancy‑based approach focused on mapping wetlands — the biodiversity and ecosystem functions the state hopes to support.
“However, we do recognize population estimates are needed for the new harvest caps that are proposed,” Sullivan said.
Estimates suggest 43,000 to 64,000 dam‑building beavers statewide, and he emphasized the figure is likely conservative.
Part of the plan discusses mapping beavers’ food caches in the fall, the underwater piles of sticks and vegetation used for winter survival.
“So sort of a new research component is proposed,” Sullivan said.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Carnivore and Furbearer Program Manager Mark Vieira summarized Chapter 4 on harvest management, noting that beavers are regulated as a hunted furbearer species.
The recreational season runs Oct. 1 through April 30, with no bag limit, and CPW data shows individual harvesters average about two beavers per year. Since lethal trapping was restricted under Amendment 14, Vieira said recreational hunting numbers have declined.
Recent statewide harvest totals are 1,100 to 1,600 beavers annually, roughly 2% to 4% of the estimated population and 1% to 3% on public lands.
Vieira said the plan proposes shifting beaver harvest oversight from a statewide total to a drainage‑based system, allowing CPW to manage harvest at a more biologically meaningful scale.
“We would require a mandatory check and sealing of avocationally taken beaver each year by harvesters and staff would collect precise harvest location at the time,” he said.
He said the change would give CPW the data needed to adjust seasons or limits in specific drainages if harvest exceeds sustainable levels.
How the beaver management strategy is organized
The draft Beaver Conservation and Management Strategy is organized into eight chapters, beginning with background moving into implementation-focused strategies.
Chapter 1: Introduction and purpose
Chapter 2: Beaver natural history
Chapter 3: Population and habitat monitoring
Chapter 4: Harvest management
Chapter 5: Beaver restoration opportunities
Chapter 6: Nonlethal conflict resolution and coexistence
Chapter 7: Translocation policy and protocol
Chapter: Strategies, goals and actions
Source: Colorado Parks and Wildlife
