Request for Proposals: Beaver Help Desk Website

Help Create a New Beaver Coexistence Program Website!

We are seeking proposals to assist in the creation of California’s first virtual Beaver Help Desk (BHD). The BHD will be operated by the Beaver Coexistence Program in cooperation with the Beaver Institute. 

Background

The Beaver Coexistence Program (BCP) provides landowner technical assistance and funding as well as education and outreach on beaver coexistence. Through at least early 2027, the BCP will be dispersing hundreds of thousands of dollars to move beaver coexistence forward in California. We are offering matching funding through landowner stipends for people who want to do beaver coexistence work themselves. And, we are also providing matching funds to allow land managers to work with experts to assess, design, install, and monitor beaver coexistence projects. We are also partnering with the national Beaver Institute to offer the BeaverCorps training, which has long served as a crucial platform for nurturing a community of professional beaver coexistence contractors. 

The BCP is housed within the WATER Institute (WI) at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC). OAEC cultivates ecological literacy and builds the capacity of civic and social movement leaders and organizations to guide their own communities to an ecologically regenerative, economically viable, and socially just future. The WI develops innovative, science-based solutions for communities and the environment to address past hydrologically destructive land use and in anticipation of the effects of future climate change on California’s watersheds. Our offices are located near Occidental, California in Sonoma County but we operate throughout the state with the BCP.

Qualifications

Qualified applicants will demonstrate proficiency in creating web pages that are straightforward to maintain and update with content and tools that can move cross platforms, are user-interactive, and can generate outputs as needed.

Scope of Work

Specifically, we want to build on the page outline of the OAEC Beaver information page as follows:

• Landing page
  • Welcome to the Help Desk!
    • Description and links:
      • Start here if you are a landowner or manager experiencing beaver conflict and you don’t know where to start (link to public contact form)
      • Start here if you are a landowner or manager experiencing beaver conflict and are ready to reach out to a beaver coexistence professional for assistance (link to ‘Find a Contractor’)
      • Start here if you are a beaver restoration professional or want to become one. (link to “California BeaverCorps” page)

• Beaver coexistence installation information, descriptions from the existing OAEC website with links to sites, probably the following:
  • Dam flooding/Pond leveler device
  • Blocked culverts
  • Beaver Back Saver
  • Tree Damage

• Public contact form, improved from the existing form, to include:
  • Updated description
  • Updated form fields to include links:
    • Link to Landowner Stipend Application Form
    • Link to Landowner Cost Share Program Application
  • Capacities to explore
    • Auto-response
      • Potential for AI responses or chat?
    • Raw and summary data forwarded to OAEC point person
    • Public photo upload – documentation of beaver problem
    • Links to California Department of Fish and Wildlife websites when prompted by user inputs; assure filtration to our niche

• Beaver Coexistence Contractor page
  • Capacities to explore
    • “Find a contractor” tool, somewhat mimicking Beaver Institute’s, which for us needs improvements to get more refined spatially- ie, which Counties in CA. We desire a database query-run tool that allows users to enter geographic information about their interest with an output of contractors who work in that area.
    • Method for contractors to keep their own information up-to-date (login credentials, annual auto reminders)

• California BeaverCorps Program,
  • Description and link:
    • To Beaver Institute training page

• Education and resources

• Current events
• Links to policies/procedures related to beaver coexistence
  • New CDFW policy, depredation
  • CDFW translocation proposal
• Scientific papers, reports
• Links to other organizations’ information, such as BI’s

• FAQ’s

• Success stories

In addition to the layout and content listed above, the following issues are important to us:

• Spanish language translation plug-in for all pages
• Ease of backend management (uploading text, files, photos, videos)

Note, we anticipate additional assistance with this project by a Spanish translator for key pages. We also have the option to retain a graphic design expert if we decide this would be a benefit to the project.

Submissions

Please include with your proposal your rates and payment schedule as well as an estimated ‘not to exceed’ maximum you believe will be needed to accomplish the project. We would also appreciate provision of example projects that illustrate your work, highlighting any particularly relevant projects.

We will review proposals starting 5/15/2025, hoping to start the work no later than 7/1/2025 with completion by 10/1/2025.

Please submit proposals to Dr. Grey Hayes (707) 874-1557 ext. 133 or .