2024 Process-Based Restoration Year In Review 

2024 has been a hugely successful year for beaver and process-based restoration (PBR) in California. Working with many partners, including members of the California Process-Based Restoration Network, we successfully trained dozens of participants in how to see, design, and build like a beaver. Countless gullies were stuffed, and dozens of instream structures were installed as a result of important collaborations with our tribal, NGO, agency, academic, restoration practitioner, community, and private landowner partners. 

Participants at the Salmonid Restoration Foundation Annual Conference in Santa Rosa in March had an opportunity for an all-day field trip with Kate and Brock, Kevin Swift (Swift Water Design), Damion Ciotti (US Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program) and Loren Poncia (Stemple Creek Ranch). The tour visited two Upland PBR project sites—OAEC and Little Fallon Creek at Stemple Creek Ranch. The sold-out field trip was called, “Process-Based Restoration in the Uplands—Transforming Fuels to Flows and Willows to Water to Support Healthy Forests, Forage and Fish.”

In April, Kate and our close collaborator, Kevin Swift of Swift Water Design, headed to France. French artist Suzanne Husky and French author and professor of philosophy Baptiste Morizot in collaboration with Syndicat d’Aménagement du Bassin Versant du Ciron and Association Rivière Rhône Alpes Auvergne (ARRA²), invited Kate and Kevin to conduct trainings on beaver and process-based restoration in three watersheds across the country. These trainings on “low-tech regeneration of rivers by beaver techniques” were a mix of philosophy, ecology, science, feedback, and a lot of fieldwork to change how we look at and act with rivers. This video (in French!) summarizes the training.

April marked the beginning of the Mark West Regional Park and Open Space Preserve: Upper Watershed Restoration Planning process. Brock has been invited to contribute to the Fuels to Flows upland PBR components of this plan. This process is being led by the Sonoma County Regional Parks in partnership with the Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Sherwood Design Engineers, and Environmental Science Associates.

At the Eames Ranch in Petaluma, Brock offered a PBR Fuels to Flows slideshow and hands-on training on how to use gully stuffing to repair a very large headcut. Brock did this while wearing his OAEC and Sonoma Mountain Institute board president hats.

Brock offered the closing keynote at the Zero Waste Symposium in Rohnert Park in May. He spoke about OAEC’s Fuels to Flows work and how fire, water, carbon, biodiversity, and jobs with justice can contribute to zero waste in the fire resilience and forest management space.

In July, Kate and Brock and Kevin Swift were invited to work with 40 Tule River tribal staff to carry out a variety of process-based restoration techniques over a three-day hands-on training at the Tule River Reservation in the southern Sierra Nevada. The Tule River Tribe has a flourishing Beaver Project.

Also in July, Community Alliance with Family Farmers released a flier and blog post about gully stuffing, highlighting the work at OAEC as a case study.

Lastly, in July, the website Tending the Land for Fire Resilience in Sonoma County launched as a guide for anyone living or working in Sonoma County interested in developing fire resiliency, conserving water, enhancing wildlife habitat, and more. OAEC’s Brock Dolman and Hannah Wilton co-developed the overall conceptual design, co-wrote, and co-edited the website. The site contains an excellent write-up on how to do headcut gully stuffing as well as lop and lay on contours.

In September, Brock and Kate partnered with Sonoma County Regional Parks, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Swift Water Design to train regional park staff in Fuels to Flows techniques at Stillwater Cove Regional Park.

Also in September, Brock led a Resilient Forest and Watershed Stewardship tour featuring the PBR work that has been done at OAEC.

In October, Kate and Brock were invited by the Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance (TERA) of Lake County, California to support their members and partners in learning about and installing some process-based restoration structures.

In October, Brock led a four-day process-based restoration training at Flynn Creek in Navarro. The training attendees included Trout Unlimited, Mendocino Resource Conservation District, and California Conservation Corps staff.

In another collaboration with SCRP and Resilience Works and North Bay Jobs with Justice, Brock led a three-day, all-staff training at the Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park in October. The workshop included training in Fuels to Flows and built off of earlier work we’ve conducted at this location.

Kate and Brock spent four days contributing to beaver and process-based restoration field tours, discussions, and onsite building opportunities at the California Process Based Restoration Network’s third-annual  “Build Like a Beaver” training in October. This year’s training took place in three beautiful restoration locations: Child’s Meadow near Mt. Lassen (Tehama County) and Clarks Creek and Middle Meadow on the Plumas National Forest near Antelope Lake (Plumas County).