05-06-2025
Black Hills beaver trapping moratorium advances as population tumbles
A beaver at Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. (Larry Palmer/USFWS)
Citing a population decline and degraded habitat, South Dakota officials have advanced a plan to halt beaver trapping in the Black Hills for two years.
The plan will block trapping during the 2025 and 2026 seasons in the Black Hills Fire Protection District. Trapping would remain open in the rest of the state. The state legislature's Rules Review Committee will need to approve the moratorium.
In 2012, biologists saw 60 food caches — piles of woody vegetation built by beavers for winter — in the Black Hills. By 2023, they recorded only 16. Beavers occupied 52% of Black Hills watersheds in 2012, but just 23% in 2023.
Rodent or riparian restorer: East-west views diverge as state considers beaver protections
Beavers once numbered in the thousands in the Black Hills and the millions nationwide, but their numbers began to decline with the onset of fur trapping by European settlers. Officials said habitat loss, not modern trapping, is to blame for current population declines. But they also said they don't want trapping to contribute to the problem.
'The limiting factor is habitat degradation,' said John Kanta, section chief with the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks.
Only one beaver trapping was reported in the Black Hills last season.
Without beaver dams, faster-flowing water cuts stream channels too deep for beavers to work with. Cattle also trample streambanks, leaving fewer willow and aspen for beavers to feed on.
A closed trapping season will help protect the beavers that are being reintroduced, officials say. Game, Fish and Parks is working with the U.S. Forest Service and volunteer groups to restore habitat through tree planting and manmade dams, and nuisance beavers from urban areas are being relocated to the improved habitats.
'It's a wonderful step,' said Hans Stephenson, owner of Dakota Angler & Outfitter in Rapid City and a volunteer for the restoration efforts.
Beaver dams raise the water table, slow water flow, and create habitat that supports everything from aquatic insects to the brown and rainbow trout favored by anglers, Stephenson said.
Alex Solem, senior wildlife biologist with Game, Fish and Parks, emphasized the broader ecological role beavers play.
'Any time there's beaver around, usually, it signals a really healthy ecosystem,' Solem said.
If more Black Hills streams had beaver dams, he said, floodplain soils would hold more water, support grazing, mitigate flooding and lessen the dangers of drought and wildfires.
In addition to the moratorium, officials adopted a new threshold-based framework to guide future decisions. Under that framework, trapping season would reopen if beaver occupancy in monitored watersheds rose above 80%, Occupancy between 50% and 79% would open the door to resident-only, private-land trapping. Levels below 50%, like now, would trigger automatic closure.
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