About OAEC’s
Bring Back the Beaver Campaign
The WATER Institute’s Bring Back the Beaver Campaign is one of California’s leading efforts to legitimize beaver and process-based restoration as important low-cost, nature-based strategies to restore California’s degraded water resources and build resilience to the increasingly catastrophic impacts of climate change. Our work has dramatically changed the way our resource agencies and communities 1) understand the critical role beaver play in aquatic habitat restoration and endangered species recovery and 2) center our tribal partners’ sovereign rights to restore this culturally significant species. With the goal of improving water supply for humans and the environment and increasing resilience to drought and climate change, we are working to integrate beaver restoration into California policy, regulation, and practices.
Timeline of Campaign
Brock brings up the idea of reintroducing beaver to Willow Creek to CDFW, State Parks and UC scientists and gets mainly shut down and told they were not ever native to the area.
The WATER Institute is formally founded and begins developing trusted relationships and carrying out holistic watershed restoration and listed species recovery efforts.
Brock insinuates that beaver benefits salmon to the Salmon Restoration Federation (SRF) conference and community. This is not well received as most folks believe beaver are “bad for fish passage.” Brock invites strategic scientific presenters, such as Dr. Michael Pollock (author of seminal papers correlating the benefits of beaver to coho salmon restoration) to the 2010 conference. This legitimizes the idea for the salmon recovery community.
The Bring Back the Beaver Campaign is formally launched.
Gordon Leppig of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) approaches Brock after his Bioneers keynote. This begins our first important CDFW pro-beaver insider relationship.
Brock, Dr. Rick Lanman and Heidi Perryman (Worth A Dam) begin sourcing historical info which results in the first review of the historic evidence beaver paper in 2012.
The WATER Institute begins strategically working with restoration communities that could benefit from beaver restoration, including those working with salmonids and in mountain meadows and riparian rangelands.
Brock brings Dr. Michael Pollock to Scott Valley to meet with pro-beaver partners from the Scott Valley Watershed Council and Will Harling of the Mid-Klamath Watershed Council.
Brock creates the first CA Beaver Flag logo for a talk which then becomes the logo for the Bring Back the Beaver Campaign.
The WATER Institute to the first peer-reviewed beaver historic ecology in the Sierra Nevada paper, published in the California Fish and Game Journal
Taking advantage of the scholarly events associated with the Fort Ross Bicentennial, Kate begins research for coastal historic evidence paper.
The WATER Institute and other advocates form the California Beaver Working Group, an ad-hoc group of scientists, agency and non-profit staff interested in the stewardship of beaver in California, convene their first meeting.
SRF gives Brock the Golden Pipe Award for beaver innovation. This is important as it reflects the critical pivot point turning of our first, semi-anti beaver community into beaver believers.
The Nature Conservancy hires The WATER Institute to do a coastal coho salmon-focused historic review report.
The WATER Institute and other colleagues are invited by the National Marine Fisheries Service staff to contribute language that explains the potential benefits of beaver to coho salmon to support their inclusion as a legitimate partner in coho salmon recovery. See the recovery plans for the Central CA Coast and Northern CA and Southern OR.
The WATER Institute contributes to the second peer-reviewed historic ecology paper, published for the coast and Southern California in the Fish and Game Journal.
Kate brings beaver restoration to the first annual Sierra Meadows Partnership Meeting to increase that community’s awareness of the importance of beaver to meadow and focal species restoration. Brock and Kate attend annual meetings every year thereafter. This is a key community to insinuate the idea of beaver nativity and broader benefits to other species people care about, such as Sierra Nevada Willow Flycatcher or Cascades Frog.
The WATER Institute convinces CDFW to add beaver coexistence strategies to its “Keep Me Wild” section of their website which later changes to “Human-Wildlife Conflicts: Beaver”.
Kate and Brock conduct a presentation and field visit for CDFW Region 3 (Bay Area) Staff to learn about the benefits of beaver to coastal stream and salmonid restoration.
The WATER Institute brings Dr. Michael Pollock to a Child’s Meadow convening co-hosted with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) which leads to the study proposal and CDFW funding award.
Kate and Kevin Swift train with Sherry Tippie in Colorado on how to properly live trap and relocate beaver
The WATER Institute starts working on getting beaver restoration assessments and demonstration projects installed such as the beaver dam analog (BDA) in mountain meadows with Damion Ciotti (USFWS) at Audrain Meadow
Kate and Kevin Swift give beaver restoration and coexistence presentation to Caltrans District 5 staff. This is a key win with a large state agency that leads to the installation of a pond leveler device at their Prunedale mitigation site.
The WATER Institute co-develops the CASTOR beaver intrinsic model with Jacob Pollock.
Kate and Brock meet with CDFW Director Bonham and Wildlife Fisheries Branch Directors and face resistance when discussing the development of a Beaver Management Plan.
The WATER Institute meets with both the Tule River Tribal Council and the Maidu Summit Consortium to discuss beaver restoration. Damion Ciotti (USFWS) introduces The WATER Institute to Kenneth McDarment and the Tule River Tribal Council to discuss beaver restoration.
Kate and Brock meet with the Maidu Summit Consortium to discuss beaver restoration. Both Damion Ciotti and Amy Crawford introduce The WATER Institute to Kenneth Holbrook (Executive Director) and others from the Maidu Summit Consortium to discuss beaver restoration.
Kate and Kevin Swift participate in beaver live trapping and relocation methods training with the Methow Beaver Project in Washington state.
CDFW follows The WATER Institutes’ recommendation and includes beaver restoration in the 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan.
2015: Kate contributes to the Canadian Miistakis Institute’s Beaver Restoration Across Boundaries project.
2015: Kate reviews and edits the Beaver Restoration Guidebook.
Kate meets with Sierra Wildlife Coalition and the US Forest Service in Lake Tahoe to discuss solutions for human beaver conflicts. US Forest Service staff changes their management attitudes due to our 2012 paper and adds beaver signage to their interpretive displays.
The WATER Institute releases the first edition of Beaver in California: Creating a Culture of Stewardship guidebook.
An iNaturalist “Beaver Blitz” for Sonoma Creek is initiated by The WATER Institute
The WATER Institute successfully includes beaver restoration in the Sierra Meadows Partnership’s Sierra Meadows Strategy.
USFWS funds The WATER Institute to carry out a West Marin beaver reintroduction feasibility assessment.
Kate and Brock work with The Nature Conservancy to run the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) for California and bring Utah State’s Dr. Joe Wheaton to visit Scott River Watershed Council partners in the Scott Valley.
The North Fork Kern beaver restoration feasibility assessment for CalTrout is completed by the WATER Institute.
The WATER Institute participates in the USFWS-led Process-Based Restoration (PBR) workshop held at Doty Ravine, Tásman Koyóm and Child’s Meadow.
Ben Goldfarb includes The WATER Institute’s work in his California chapter of the best-selling book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.
Kate and Brock work with Sutter National Wildlife Refuge and Roosevelt Ranch to further develop and promote the Beaver Back Saver coexistence device.
The WATER Institute and co-petitioners file a regulation change petition with the CA Fish and Game Commission to get CDFW to develop a rigorous guidance document for how they issue beaver depredation permits to landowners. The petitioners advocate that landowners be required to try co-existence measures first and, if present, protect endangered species before receiving a permit to kill the beaver.
Wildlife Protection Act is passed which prevents beaver from being killed in traps (bill language).
The WATER Institute convenes a beaver policy meeting in Yreka.
The WATER Institute completes a Beaver Recruitment Strategy at Tásmam Koyóm for the Maidu Summit Consortium.
Kate and Brock give significant input on beaver monitoring protocols for the Sierra Meadows Partnership’s Sierra Meadows Wetland & Riparian AreaMonitoring Plan (SM-WRAMP).
The WATER Institute supports the Tule River Tribe in applying for and being awarded a USFWS Tribal Wildlife Grant for relocation and meadow restoration.
The WATER Institute helps organize and present at the California Beaver Summit.
The WATER Institute advocacy efforts get a significant boost when we begin working with lobbyist Jennifer Fearing of Fearless Advocacy, Inc.
CDFW redesigns its beaver webpage, formally acknowledging their conservation value and including links to The WATER Institute’s publication Beaver in California, Cultivating a Culture of Stewardship.
In collaboration with Prunuske Chatham, Inc., The WATER Institute contributes beaver restoration and coexistence considerations to the Working with Beavers on Sonoma Water Channels and the Fryer Creek Beaver Impact Analysis and Alternatives Development Report for Sonoma Water agency.
With Jennifer’s guidance, we coordinate a massive show of support for the letter we submit to Director Wade Crowfoot at the CA Natural Resource Agency. Beaver and process-based restoration are included as nature-based solutions in the final version of the Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy.
The legislature approves the Governor’s budget including funds to create a new CDFW-led Beaver Restoration Program.
Along with lobbyist Jennifer Fearing, we convene the first monthly meeting of the CA Beaver Policy Working Group to discuss state-level advocacy, strategize next steps, and coordinate around policy and projects.
The WATER Institute partners with the CA Beaver Policy Working Group to carry out a successful tour for 50 state leaders of one of CA’s best beaver restoration sites.
CDFW Beaver Restoration Program announces it will carry out two beaver conservation translocation pilot processes this year with the Maidu Summit Consortium at Tásmam Koyóm and the Tule River Tribe at their reservation.
CDFW announces new policy in response to The WATER Institute petition to the Fish and Game Commission to require coexistence solutions be exhausted before kill permits are issued for “nuisance” beavers.
CDFW convenes The WATER Institute and its recommended partners in a Technical Advisory Group to advise on the creation of the first-ever Beaver Management Plan.
First translocation carried out by the CDFW Beaver Restoration Program at Tásmam Koyóm.
The WATER Institute is awarded a $2 million block grant to develop a program to build California’s capacity for successful beaver coexistence implementation.
Second translocation carried out by the CDFW Beaver Restoration program on Tule River Tribal Lands.
