New beaver regulations and harvest data will support Colorado’s statewide management efforts

September 23, 2026

DENVER — Beginning with the 2026-27 beaver season, Colorado Parks and Wildlife will implement new harvest regulations designed to increase the amount of information wildlife managers collect on beaver harvest and support implementation of CPW’s recently finalized Beaver Conservation and Management Strategy (BCMS). The BCMS was developed through extensive engagement with agency staff, stakeholders, partners and members of the public.

Starting Oct. 1, 2026, avocational beaver hunters (hunters harvesting a beaver using a small game license with a furbearer harvest permit, or furbearer license) will be required to personally present harvested beaver carcasses or pelts to CPW for physical inspection and sealing. The new requirement will provide wildlife managers with more precise information on where beavers are being harvested to help implement the BCMS.

“Hunters play an important role in helping us better understand Colorado’s beaver populations,” said CPW Beaver Conservation Program Manager Kris Inman. “Having hunters personally present harvested beaver allows us to identify and verify the location of each harvest. Over time, those finer-scale data can give a clearer picture of population and harvest distribution to help guide where we focus conservation, restoration, and translocation efforts statewide.”

Managing beavers for Colorado’s future
The mandatory harvest check is one of several tools CPW will use to implement its Beaver Conservation and Management Strategy, which establishes a statewide framework to increase beavers’ ecological function on the landscape through encouraging beaver-influenced wetlands in suitable habitats.

Beavers can have significant benefits for Colorado’s streams and wetlands. Their dams slow and retain water, expand riparian areas, and create habitat used by a wide range of wildlife species. Additionally, these wetlands act as natural sponges and critical fuel breaks, storing excess water in the ground to release during dry spells, keeping surrounding vegetation hydrated, and slowing the spread of wildfires across the landscape. CPW is increasingly looking for opportunities to maintain beavers where they are beneficial and, when appropriate, relocate animals from areas experiencing conflict to suitable habitat where they can contribute to restoration efforts.

The strategy focuses on five major areas:

Population and habitat status and monitoring
Beaver harvest management
Beaver restoration opportunities
Nonlethal approaches for reducing human-beaver conflicts
Beaver translocation policy and protocols

“Our focus isn’t about maximizing or minimizing harvest, but on using sound data to promote beavers' ecological function on the landscape where they are ecologically and socially compatible,” said Inman. “Hunters provide unique local knowledge and important data that directly ensures our management decisions support healthy watersheds, sustainable beaver populations, and local land uses.

Spatial harvest information can help support those efforts
Colorado’s estimated avocational beaver harvest was approximately 1,300 animals per year in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Based on a rough statewide population projection of 43,000 to 64,000 dam-building beavers, CPW estimates avocational harvest currently removes approximately 2 to 4% of the statewide population annually.

Historically, harvest was substantially higher. Avocational trapping and hunting accounted for an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 beavers annually during the 1960s. Today, hunters who pursue beavers harvest an average of approximately two animals per year.

Beaver season and bag limit changes
CPW also adjusted the statewide avocational beaver season beginning in 2026. The season will run annually from Oct. 1 through March 31, one month shorter than the previous Oct. 1-April 30 season.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission also established a daily bag limit of two for all 17 furbearer species, including beavers. The possession limit remains unlimited. Beavers remain classified as a hunted furbearer species in Colorado. Legal methods of avocational take include rifles, handguns, shotguns, airguns, handheld bows or crossbows, and live trapping with cage or box traps. Live traps must be checked daily, and beavers not released from a live trap must be dispatched using a legal hunting method.

The regulatory changes are part of a broader effort to ensure Colorado’s beaver harvest remains sustainable while providing wildlife managers with more information to guide future decisions.

Learn more about beavers and CPW’s Beaver Conservation and Management Strategy at cpw.state.co.us/beaver.

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