Now look what you’ve made them do. The Sacramento Bee HATES to write about beavers. Even when Pulitzer prize winner Tom Knutson did his jaw-dropping report on USDA they only wrote about beavers because he made them. Now they are forced to climb aboard.
Beaver restoration program brings furry species back to habitats, tribal land across California
California has strengthened a new Beaver Restoration Program which is dedicated to supporting the species and their habitats. With the passing of Assembly Bill 2196, the program has partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The initiative works with California tribal nations, private landowners and non-government organizations on implementing coexistence and beaver-assisted restoration projects to the state’s wildlife habitats. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB2196 into law in September. The bill’s author, Assemblyman Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael, said the law will now codified the program’s efforts.
“Beavers are an instrumental keystone species to our ecosystems, and they play a vital role in maintaining the habitats around them for the benefit of other species,” said Connolly in a news release. “The initiative to restore beavers back into their original wildlife habitats is beneficial to species recovery, improving habitat complexity, and enhancing watershed restoration through dam complexes.”
Those very things that ruin our levies, We still get to kill them right?
Brock Dolman, the co-founder of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, has been working on beaver restoration since the late 2000s, he said. The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center has been at the forefront of the beaver restoration program, to center a co-existence mindset with the species
.Beavers have sometimes been seen as a nuisance or pest, Dolman said. In reality, beavers are beneficial to the environment. They help keep up maintenance to California rivers, wetlands and mountain meadows, and slow down water from spreading and sinking in with their dams and canals. As a result, their presence helps address issues with flooding and droughts. “What’s equally important is the recognition of the types of benefits that beavers (provide) and what beavers do in rivers and in wetlands, mountain meadows, salmon streams and urban riparian corridors,”
Dolman said. For example, a paper from the California State University, Channel Islands, found that beavers play a part in wildfire prevention. When analyzing five wildfires in the American West, those that had beaver dams burned three times less than those without. Collaboration with California tribal nations
Yes well we like that part. Can we order just the fire prevention beavers and not the flooding the levies one? Where do we sign up for that.
Around 10 years ago, Tule River tribal leaders began their initiative to bring beavers back. These efforts became a reality this year. In June, a family of seven beavers were reintroduced to Tule River tribal lands in the southern Sierra Nevada.
“I’m very happy to see (the beavers) come home and it’s going to be wonderful to watch them do their thing,” said Kenneth McDarment, a member of the Tule River Tribe, in a news release. “People will be educated even more by seeing the work that they do and the benefits they bring to the environment. My hope is to have the beaver throughout the reservation and all the watershed that we have.”’
Which reminds me. It’s been more than a year since the first reintroduction to Maidu land. Don’t you think California deserves and update on how they’re doing? Did they survive? Were kits born? How many dams did they make?
Inquiring minds want to know.
