This article is so nearly everything I ever hoped it would be. The author Carolina Cuellar did a great news piece for KQED about Emily and contacted me back in April. I introduced her to Virginia and Fairfield and she visited in May. She attended the California Beaver Summit and was fairly convinced that they matter, I later gave her the depredation reviews we have been working on with Robin.

Beavers Can Help California’s Environment, But State Policy Doesn’t Help Them

One month into 2020’s shelter in place order, Virginia Holsworth and her family decided to change things up by walking in the opposite direction of their usual daily stroll through suburban Fairfield. That’s when she first encountered the amassment of sticks blocking the path’s adjacent creek, Laurel Creek.For the next few months she watched cormorants and blue herons among the cattails and tules. Supposedly the creek even contained so many rainbow trout, a member of the community — illegally — caught 40 of them. The way the beavers and their dam had changed the landscape and reinvigorated the habitat enthralled Holsworth, and she became devoted to preserving them in her community. (more…)