Greywater Policy Innovation Goes to Sacramento

The Decentralized Water Policy Council (DWPC), a project of OAEC and the California Onsite Water Association, was one of three finalists in the Imagine H2O Policy Challenge. Finalists were selected from over 100 applications … Read more

Nov. 2-7: Week of Action to Protect Pollinators

For the last two years, OAEC’s Executive Director Dave Henson has been facilitating a network of U.S. organizations that are developing strategies to protect pollinators such as bees, bats, birds, … Read more

Water Budgeting at OAEC and in Your Community

Above: Alana records weekly potable water use at OAEC outside the Main Office, which all staff members see throughout the day. You, too, could do this at your workplace, church, child’s … Read more

OAEC Publishes Wildlands Preserve Stewardship Plan

Pictured: Harold Appleton, registered professional forester, co-authored the plan with Lindsay Dailey and Jim Coleman (pictured) as well as Brock Dolman. Harold spent many hours onsite inventorying mixed conifer forests and guiding OAEC … Read more

OAEC Cookbook: Summer Recipe & Civil Eats Article

Pictured: Flower Petal Pestos. Edible flowers, such as sunflower and nastutium, volunteer in legions in OAEC’s temperate gardens. These brightly colored sauces in small quantities are most efficiently used as a … Read more

Drought Action

These are extraordinary times in California–especially in the Dutch Bill Creek Watershed, where OAEC is located, and the watersheds surrounding it. The water in our creeks is so low that … Read more

Why California Is Localizing Its Waters

The Connection Between Energy and Water Water conservation and reuse aren’t just about water quantity, but about dramatically reducing the energy requirement of our water systems. Did you know that … Read more

Beaverpalooza 2015

The WATER Institute Beaver Campaign Hits The Road! In late February and early March, Kate Lundquist and Brock Dolman of the WATER Institute made great headway in forwarding their Bring … Read more

The Benefits of Prescribed Fires

In a time of climate change and drought, California’s forests are increasingly under the threat of catastrophic fires. While the state spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year on … Read more

Our 20th Anniversary

This year, OAEC celebrates two decades of work in cultivating community-scale sustainability and resilience! The Evolution and Impact of OAEC In the summer of 1994, a small group of inspired friends … Read more

WATER Institute Director Learns to Relocate Beaver In Colorado

In the summer of 2014, WATER Institute Director Kate Lundquist went to Colorado to learn to live trap and relocate beaver (Castor canadensis) from long-time beaver advocate Sherri Tippie of Wildlife 2000. Accompanied by her partner and non-lethal beaver management designer Kevin Swift, Kate got see first hand how the state of Colorado is successfully implementing this important non-lethal beaver management strategy. Beaver dams provide numerous benefits to the communities they reside in, from increasing water supply to creating valuable habitat for many other species.

Why did they have to go all the way to Colorado to learn about this? Because it is not legal to do so in California. While many arid western states (Oregon, Washington State, Utah and Colorado) move beaver to places that could benefit from the myriad ecosystem services they provide, California law focuses solely on hunting and lethal management of nuisance beaver.

Kate setting beaver trapIn the absence of such innovative practices, the WATER Institute has launched a Bring Back the Beaver Campaign to integrate beaver management into California policy and regulation in order to improve water quality and quantity, create critical wetland habitat for numerous endangered species and optimize aquatic resource conservation and climate change adaptation strategies.

Colorado’s example is one that the WATER Institute intends to use when making policy recommendations to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.