We are proud to announce the launch of the first-ever California Beaver Help Desk!
With our new online portal now live, beaver problems can become beaver solutions throughout all of California.
The California Beaver Help Desk is an easy-to-use resource, offering:
- Free technical assistance for land managers navigating human-beaver conflict
- Cost-share applications of up to 50% for project installation expenses
- Tuition waivers for Californians who are ready to become Certified Beaver Coexistence Professionals, through the Beaver Institute’s BeaverCorps Professional Training Program “Business Track”
- Interactive “Find a Pro” map featuring independent Beaver Coexistence Professionals throughout California
- Information and resources about beaver coexistence, benefits, sightings, and science
If you are a land manager experiencing human-beaver conflict, would like to enroll in the BeaverCorps Professional Training Program, or are generally interested in coexistence techniques and resources, this site is for you. Visit the Help Desk today!
How the Help Desk Came to Be:
In 2024, after years of advocacy and education, the WATER Institute at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center was awarded the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Nature Based Solutions: Wetlands and Mountain Meadows Grant to design and launch the first-ever California Beaver Coexistence Training and Support Program, featuring the California Beaver Help Desk.
Through this grant, the WATER Institute will also produce and manage a Statewide Beaver Conflict Assessment, a Beaver Conflict Response Plan, and ongoing education and outreach programs to make coexistence an easy and accessible option when human-beaver conflicts emerge.
In the lead up to this award, from 2019 to 2024, new statewide policies were instituted to recognize and harness the positive, watershed-scale benefits that beaver bring to California. Most notably, in 2022, the California legislature approved funding to launch CDFW’s Beaver Restoration Program.
And in 2023, CDFW released new beaver depredation guidelines requiring landowners to carry out coexistence measures before they would issue a permit to kill “nuisance” beaver.
Bottom Right: A Fence and Pipe Flow Device installation brings beaver coexistence to Fryer Creek. Photo: Brock Dolman
Today, with these policy changes in place, the California Beaver Help Desk is here to provide needed resources, technical assistance, and funding support to make beaver coexistence easy and affordable.
If you’re a land manager in California experiencing human-beaver conflict, get started with a quick and easy online application to secure technical and financial assistance.
We’ll see you online!
The California Beaver Coexistence Training and Support Program is a partnership between the WATER Institute at Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, the Beaver Institute, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, whose Nature Based Solutions: Wetlands and Mountain Meadows Grant Program makes this work possible.
