For too long, Oregon’s lack of beaver management has ignored sound science. Current hunting and trapping guidelines frame beavers as a nuisance species, which ignores overwhelming evidence of their key role in creating and maintaining aquatic ecosystems.

Beavers are a keystone species, a species that other wildlife depend on. Humans also need beavers to improve our water quality, provide healthy streams for endangered salmon, mitigate pollution from wildfires and stem the effects of climate change.

In September, conservation groups sent a petition to increase the size of protected public lands throughout Oregon for beavers. This petition, which would amend current hunting and trapping rules, leaves half of the Beaver State open to trapping and hunting, while allowing beavers to thrive on federally managed public lands where the benefits of their presence would be maximized.

This petition, if adopted, would require the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to honor its own mission statement regarding indigenous species, and begin monitoring beaver populations so that we can make informed management decisions.

By permanently closing commercial and recreational beaver trapping/hunting on federally managed public lands and the waters that flow through them, we allow these creatures to provide essential ecosystem services for the 4.2 million residents throughout the Beaver State, in addition to creating and maintaining homes for aquatic life.

Sristi Kamal

Portland