There are a few different ways to try to save beavers. Dam by dam at the local level, which we have in Martinez. County by county like we have by reviewing the depredation permits and shaming the offenders.. State by state like we did the summit.
Or larger scale still, like trying to keep beavers in National Forests all across the country.
A Guide to Advocating for Beaver Restoration in National Forest Plans
A Guide to Advocating for Beaver Restoration in National Forest Plans offers guidance for public engagement in the national forest planning process to ensure that newly revised plans include affirmative and proactive language around beavers and beaver habitat restoration.
National forest plans set the overall management direction for a given forest and provide guidance for the design and execution of specific management actions. As the pace, scale, and magnitude of climate change has become increasingly evident, there is an urgent need for these plans to explicitly address the impacts and implications of a rapidly changing climate, and offer solutions to build resilience and ecological integrity.
WOW! Describing this as a ambitious undertaking undercuts it. This is an lofty mic drop of a move by our friends at the National Wildlife Federation. The main report is 21 pages long and the appendix contains specific resources like how to structure comments about including beavers in National forests.It comes out of Montana and credits these authors mainly
Contributors: Sarah Bates (National Wildlife Federation), Taylor Simpson and Taylor Heggen (University of
Montana Alexander Blewitt III College of Law), and Lowell Chandler (University of Montana W.A. Franke College of Forestry & Conservation)
Citing forest service policy and specific language about climate change it is meant to be a useful tool in beaver advocacy. It talks about forest policy and how to best engage the public, Go Download the whole fascinating report by clicking here:
Thanks Montana! Now if you need good beaver news from another state check out this guide from Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance in New Mexico. We are building up our tool kit, one beaver at a time.
The National Wildlife Federation, in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, is taking steps to improve riparian conditions on prairie streams in north-central Montana, using low-tech methods that include beaver dam analogs (also known as BDAs) to imitate beaver activity and expand the diversity of flora and fauna. This 
Results are apparent almost immediately. After just one day of BDA construction, water that previously rushed down the narrow channel is already spreading onto the surrounding floodplain, glistening under bright yellow sunflowers and drawing leopard frogs out onto newly watered ground. As team members pack up to leave the site several days into the project installation, they watch from the hill as a muskrat wanders downstream and plops from the bank into a newly formed pool, swimming large circles in a channel that didn’t provided this habitat just a day earlier.
Rumor has it that a beaver suspect was observed last night at 8;30 near Starbucks. Browsing on purloined substances. An actual beaver seen by someone who knows the difference between a beaver and a raccoon! I’m so excited. The only thing better than a beaver in Martinez is two beavers in Martinez!
I am tempted to think beavers have reached ‘critical mass’ in their renaissance story. Public opinion has swung recently in their favor because of Ben’s book and this article the journal Natural Resources and Environment makes it look like the entire forest service has voted in their favor.
Got that? Seven years ago our Forest Service was mandated to incorporate principals of sustainability and ecological environments that would last and replenish themselves. The directive is that forests should sustain more than just trees. And in fact take care of the wildlife that uses them if they want to promote healthy growth for the long term. And guess what does that really well?
