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Story by Gosia Wozniacka, oregonlive.com
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How to restore water quality in thousands of miles of polluted waterways in Oregon? Call in the beavers – the animals, that is, not the football team.
That’s what new legislation – approved this week – essentially seeks to do.
The bill has garnered passionate support and adamant opposition during committee hearings, with more than 1,600 people submitting written testimony.
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The bill passed the House in April in a vote of 35 to 18 and the Senate on Monday 17 to 11 and now goes to Gov. Tina Kotek for her signature.
It requires state wildlife officials to adopt rules that prohibit the trapping of beavers on public lands classified as polluted waterways, in the hopes that the animals make themselves at home and do what beavers do best – build dams that filter out excess nutrients and contaminants, dig canals that create wetlands, slow water flow and create habitat for fish and wildlife.
Oregon has more than 122,000 miles of polluted or “impaired” rivers and streams, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality. That’s likely a severe undercount – the department has surveyed just over 40% of the state’s waterways and labeled more than two-thirds of them as impaired.
According to DEQ’s surveys, the top factors that lead to water quality declines are high stream temperature, dissolved oxygen, sedimentation and the presence of toxins. The agency is required to restore those waterways but it’s expensive and time-consuming.Related video: Restoration projects involving beaver habitat. (FOX 13 Seattle)
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Beavers, said bill supporters, can do it for free.
“If we started from scratch to create a resource to improve water quality and quantity on our impaired streams, we couldn’t do better than beavers,” said Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland.
Once killed off en masse and maligned, the animals – now dubbed nature’s engineers – have seen a renaissance in popularity and protection in recent years due to their ecological contributions. Oregon has recently reclassified them as “furbearers,” animals whose fur has commercial value, meaning they’re now overseen as wildlife not pests. The state also now requires private landowners to secure a permit to kill nuisance beavers.
Supporters point out that the new beaver bill doesn’t change existing laws that permit trapping or removing beavers on private land. But it prohibits beaver harvest on or adjacent to streams, rivers or watersheds that flow through or adjoin public land and are classified as impaired. The harvest prohibition doesn’t apply to navigable waterways when the adjacent land is private.
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More than half of beaver trapping in Oregon takes place on private land, mostly for fur.
During the 2023-24 harvest season, trappers killed 1,495 beavers statewide, with 53% of the trapping occurring on private land, 4% on federal or state land and 40% on navigable river/open water, state wildlife officials said.
“Based on these figures, we would expect the harvest ban to impact a portion of the harvest on federal, state and navigable river/open water (on or near public) lands,” said Michelle Dennehy, a spokeswoman with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
It’s unknown how many beavers inhabit polluted waterways – nor how many live in Oregon overall – though experts agree their population is just a tiny percentage of their original numbers.
State wildlife officials are finishing up surveys of beaver populations to quantify their distribution across the state, the underpinning of a new plan to help the animals recover. Generally, beavers are present in all major watersheds and typically observed in areas with suitable habitat, Dennehy said.
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Trappers and some other landowners opposed the new bill, arguing that additional prohibitions would hurt their livelihoods by limiting their source of income and could lead beavers to create significant damage.
“When beaver numbers swell unchecked, they cause extensive damage to agricultural lands, disrupt infrastructure and threaten the habitats of other wildlife. Trapping is not merely a hobby for many of us; it is a necessary practice that allows us to maintain harmony between human needs and wildlife conservation,” wrote Trevin Franks, a trapper from Hood River.
The bill requires the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to publish a map showing the waterways where the new beaver protections will apply.
The department hasn’t taken a position on the bill, but Dennehy said it’s unclear whether the legislation will lead to its intended benefits. That’s because there are fewer beaver dams on public lands, likely due to the lack of hardwoods such as willow and alder that are conducive to beaver dam construction.
To bring in more beavers and their beneficial building skills, trapping closures should be paired with management of plants and trees to provide suitable habitat for dam building, she said.
— Gosia Wozniacka covers environmental justice, climate change, the clean energy transition and other environmental issues. Reach her at gwozniacka@oregonian.com or 971-421-3154.
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