The WATER Institute’s Kate Lundquist and Brock Dolman have returned from an amazing four days of 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 this October 2024. 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).
Nearly 75 participants came from restoration firms, non-profits, tribal entities, and local/state/federal conservation and regulatory agencies. We even had two partners join us from France! These eager participants got to learn from diverse experts how to see, design, and build like a beaver. Day one focused on visiting active beaver reaches and the process-based restoration work done at Child’s Meadow (Deer Creek watershed) to design with beaver’s wetland-creating tendencies in mind. Partners from a multi-year restoration and research project reported on their results, including an increase in willow flycatcher breeding territories associated with the beaver presence.
Participants on day two got to tour a recent build in Clarks Creek (North Fork Feather River watershed) where several amphibians, birds, fish, and other species were observed enjoying the results of recent work in the reach. Later the group learned to stuff upland gullies with products from fuel load reduction efforts and carry out a small group design process of structures to be built the next day. Attendees learned to look at the landscape from a watershed-wide perspective, identify source problems, and make site-specific low-tech design decisions to achieve specific restoration goals. Through this process, participants gained an understanding of the different structure types, when and where to employ them, and how to build them.
In addition to carrying out several builds on Clarks Creek, day three included a tour of Middle Meadow where the US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station shared remarkable results from their research on whether process-based restoration can accelerate meadow recovery and retain sediment and water in a post-fire landscape (spoiler alert: it can!). Participants put the finishing touches on the Clarks Creek builds on day four and learned how to use lightweight, portable hand tools to recruit large wood into the system.
A great time was had by all. We had wonderful evenings filled with amazing organic dinners, inspiring lightning talks, slide shows, and even a northern lights display! Many left deeply gratified for the opportunity to network with like-minded individuals and be out in the field working alongside some of the most experienced instructors and practitioners in the region. If this sounds like a training opportunity you would like to join in the future, please sign up for both the OAEC WATER Institute and the Cal PBR Network’s newsletters to receive notifications.
Many thanks to the following CalPBR Network partners who contributed to the planning, facilitating, funding and teaching at this training:
Karen Pope, USFS Pacific Southwest Research Station
Kevin Swift, Paige Tomson and crew, Swift Water Design
Garrett Costello and crew, Symbiotic Restoration
Damion Ciotti, USFWS Coastal Program
Brent Campos, Pt. Blue Conservation Science
Sabra Purdy, Trout Unlimited and Anabranch Solutions
Kate Lundquist and Brock Dolman, Occidental Arts & Ecology Center
Sheli Wingo, USFWS Partners Program
Jake Shannon, North Coast Water Boards
Ben Cook, Trout Unlimited
Bennie Johnson, Collins Pine
Jordan Vermillion, Upstream
Matt Berry, Anabranch Solutions & USFS, PSW
