SALEM — An unlikely alliance of advocates for agriculture, environmental protection and animal rights is asking Oregon lawmakers for $1.5 million to promote coexistence with beavers.

Even if they didn’t see eye-to-eye on past legislation that strengthened protections for the species, the organizations agree it should now be fortified with funding to help landowners.

“The Oregon Farm Bureau supports state programs that offer financial assistance to landowners for beaver management, mitigation and removal,” said Lauren Kuenzi, its director of government and political affairs.

The Farm Bureau has joined such groups as the Human Society of the United States and Defenders of Wildlife in supporting House Bill 3143, which would appropriate money for a “Landowners Living With Beavers” fund.

“This fund is the next logical step in fostering the good work beavers do on the landscape,” said Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Medford, the bill’s chief sponsor.

Though beavers are known for flooding farmland and damaging orchard crops, they help slow the flow of streams, restoring floodplains and improving their ecological function.

Under a bill passed in 2023, beavers were removed from the state’s list of predatory animals, meaning they’d be managed on private land by wildlife regulators rather than agriculture regulators.

Though the bill continued to allow beavers to be killed without a permit, lethal removals had to be reported to the state government and comply with rules developed by wildlife officials.

At the time, the Oregon Farm Bureau opposed these changes, arguing that beavers should continue to be treated as predatory animals on private lands. The group also criticized the reporting requirement as another regulatory hoop for growers.

The Farm Bureau continues to believe that lethal beaver removal is a critical tool for landowners but agrees that assisting them with non-lethal measures is a worthwhile investment, Kuenzi said.

“Beavers are great in certain places and not so great in others,” she said. “Our members recognize the ecological benefits of beavers for natural water storage and fish and wildlife habitat enhancement.”

Wildlife conservation groups say non-lethal alternatives, such as electric fencing to keep beavers from chewing on trees, are both more durable and more humane than lethal trapping.

“Removal is not a lasting solution in the immediate or long term,” said Sally Compton, executive director of the Think Wild nonprofit, which provides medical care to injured wildlife. “Trapping only provides temporary relief as it’s just a matter of time before another beaver moves in, or the habitat degrades so they can’t move in.”

Humans have numerous ways of outsmarting the rodents without killing them — “the only issue is these things costs money,” said Jakob Shockey, executive director of the Project Beaver nonprofit, which helps landowners coexist with the species.

House Bill 3143 would direct grants of up to $50,000 to watershed councils, soil and water conservation districts and nonprofit groups who can help landowners protect against tree damage and flooding from beavers.

Dollar for dollar, the $1.5 million investment is an efficient use of money because people routinely spend more on improving the hydrology of degraded riparian habitats, Shockey said.

“Those are all problems beavers solve better than humans and they do it for free,” Shockey recently told the House Agriculture Committee.

The committee is also considering a steep funding increase for programs that bolster regional food systems and the farmers who keep them running.

House Bill 2979 would invest $8 million in grants and other support for farmers markets, food hubs and agricultural resilience projects. Similar programs received $1.5 million in 2021 and more than $5 million in 2023.

Farmers and organizations who’ve won such grants said they’ve been able to invest in refrigerators and freezers that expand their food distribution efforts, as well as irrigation efficiency upgrades, shade cloths and other tools to mitigate the effects of extreme heat and adverse weather.

“This funding is a great alternative to traditional disaster relief funding as it gives the farmer the resources to maintain their crops and livestock through disasters, rather than be compensated after they lose them,” said Megan Kemple, executive director of the Oregon Climate & Agriculture Network.

Other funding requests considered by the committee include a proposal to invest $400,000 or another amount determined by lawmakers for the OregonFlora program, which compiles information on plants in the state, and a proposal to allocate $1.5 million to a state recreation and conservation fund for water-related fish and wildlife projects.