UPDATE: House Bill 1323, discussed in this article, was postponed indefinitely by a vote of 10-3 in the House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources Committee on March 23. According to the legislature’s glossary of terms, a motion to postpone indefinitely “has the same effect as moving to kill a measure.”
DENVER–A Democrat-sponsored wildlife regulation bill introduced in the legislature seeks an end to beaver hunting in Colorado, as well as the selling of their fur. The bill sponsors argue beavers are essential to wildfire and drought prevention, though at least one former wildlife commissioner questions the motives behind the bill.
House Bill 26-1323 ‘Wildfire Resiliency Prohibiting taking of Beavers’ prohibits Coloradans from hunting beavers on public land, as well as selling beaver parts, products or fur for commerce.
Arguing that Colorado is actively facing increasingly high risks of wildfires and droughts, proponents believe beavers are the cure: “By conserving beaver populations and facilitating beaver recolonization on public lands, Colorado can strengthen natural fire defenses, safeguard watersheds, and reduce long-term firefighting and recovery costs,” the bill reads, in part.
Currently, beavers are managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) as furbearers, meaning they can be hunted in season with a license, with no set bag limit.
CPW recently published their Beaver Conservation and Management Strategy, which includes population monitoring, nonlethal conflict resolution, and different harvest management. Under the plan, CPW intends to set a max harvest cap and collect further data on the animal, though nowhere in their strategy do they prohibit beaver hunting.
Former Colorado Wildlife Commissioner, Rick Enstrom, says beaver hunting is currently at an all-time low, and that this bill comes straight from the ant-hunting community.
“Nobody traps beavers anymore, there are only a few handfuls of folks that are out there doing it, so they use that as their excuse,” Enstrom told Complete Colorado, “This is a top-down directive from the anti-hunting, anti-fishing crowd.”
According to CPW’s data, beaver hunting has been declining for the last 70 years, dropping from 10-20 beavers per hunter/trapper every year, to only two beavers per hunter/trapper in 2024.
“They have zero interest in working with CPW, they have zero interest in working with sportsmen, they have zero interest in working with anybody other than the governor and his significant other,” Enstrom said, referring to Colorado’s First Gentleman, Marlin Reis, who is an outspoken animal rights activist.
Should the bill pass it would impose a $1000 fine, or 20 hunting license suspension points, to anyone who violates it, carving out exceptions for federally recognized indian tribes.
The bill is assigned to the Agriculture, Water, and Natural Resources Committee, though no hearing has yet been scheduled.
