Senate committee opens public hearing on bill to limit beaver trapping on impaired public waterways

SALem, Ore., May 6 — The Oregon Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire on Tuesday opened a public hearing on House Bill 39 32 a, a proposal that would prohibit taking beavers in designated impaired waterways on public lands and direct the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to coordinate mapping and protections.

Supporters told the committee that beavers act as “nature’s engineers,” improving water quality, recharging groundwater and creating fish and wildlife habitat, and argued the bill would protect beavers where restoration investments are underway. Opponents said the measure would substitute legislative action for the ODFW Commission’s management authority, risk unintended impacts on infrastructure and rural livelihoods, and create near‑permanent closures by tying protections to DEQ’s impaired‑waters list.

Representative Pam Marsh, the bill sponsor, told the panel that HB 39 32 a would “allow beavers to perform their natural benefits on waterways within public lands that have been identified as impaired by the Oregon D.E.Q.” She said the bill preserves tribal rights, allows limited take to address damage to infrastructure or adjacent private property with ODFW authorization, and includes an off‑ramp if a stream is…