For the first time in 200 years, it was awesome to be a beaver in California. In a show of bipartisan support, the state Legislature this summer voted to pass Assembly Bill 2196, which codifies the state’s law. Beaver Restoration Project California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The law, which protects the program that implements beaver-assisted environmental projects from state budget cuts and political turmoil, is a rebuke to the Supreme Court’s devastating 2023 ruling that put as many as 70% of the nation’s waterways and wetlands in jeopardy. The grounds are protected from the Clean Water Act.
California environmental activists, biologists and Indian tribes have been advocating for beaver protection for more than two decades, launching an extensive education campaign that included the need to convince authorities that beavers are a native species across the state. Restoration efforts will now complement California’s “30×30” goal of setting aside and protecting 30 percent of U.S. lands and coastal waters nationwide by 2030.
A beaver management plan is underway, and $2 million has been allocated to develop statewide coexistence strategies and help move beavers from where they are causing problems to where they can solve them. at last Canadian castorLong dismissed as pests, mole crickets are now being reinvented as ecological heroes.
“I’m very proud of our transformation from a laggard to a leader in beavers,” said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crawford. “While there is no magic bullet for environmental restoration, beavers are a keystone species and an important piece of the puzzle for restoring California’s ecosystems.”
Beavers were once abundant, but by 1900 they had disappeared from much of California’s habitat due to hunting by fur traders and driving them away from development. Those that remain are often annoyed by landowners who don’t want their trees chewed to the ground and hauled away to build dams, or who find their farmland or roads cleared when beaver colonies move into the neighborhood. submerged. The “nuisance” beaver was killed. Yet California needs beavers—nature’s most advanced ecosystem and water engineers.
Climate change is fundamentally altering California’s hydrology, bringing more rain and less snowmelt, exacerbating wildfires, droughts and the depletion of groundwater and aquifers. When beavers enter streams or creeks and begin building damming complexes, the ponds and wetlands they create are the antidote to all of these problems.
The water gushing out of beaver ponds is just the beginning. Beaver ponds slow down rivers and streams, storing an average of three times the amount of visible water by forming what are essentially giant underground sponges that keep water flowing during dry summers and droughts. When flooding occurs, these sponges absorb some of the excess water, creating resilience.
Research shows starkly How beavers put out fires. Satellite photos after the 2000 Munter Fire in Tulare County show a scorched landscape except for a healthy green line where beavers had dammed it. Before-and-after data leads researchers to believe Smokey the Beaver is a low-cost creator of “ribbons” of fire-resistant habitat.
Beavers are vital to the health of rivers and our future water supply. Wetlands around beaver ponds absorb carbon and purify the water, filtering out pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus. Beaver “engineers” build dams and canals that create connections between land and water; these beaver wetlands are important centers of biodiversity for plant and animal species, including many endangered species. River wetland system with beavers 30% There are more species of animals and plants than there are none.
In recent years, studies have determined the dollar value of keeping beavers in the landscape. this University of HelsinkiFor example, annual savings are estimated at $500 million in the Northern Hemisphere alone.
Molly Alves is a senior environmental scientist who joined the California Department of Fish and Wildlife last summer as beaver recovery program director. Where they work best.
“We’re looking at the overall landscape,” she said. “Where is the greatest wildfire risk? Which areas are most affected by drought? Where is the erosion? She is also writing a progress report on the current translocation.
Last year, beavers were released into two locations on the traditional lands of California’s First Nations: the Maidu Mountains and the Tule River Indians.
In October 2023, seven beavers joined a resident on a 2,000-acre property known to the Maidu people as Tásmam Koyóm, near the headwaters of the Feather River. The department announced that another group of beavers has been relocated to the Tule River in the Sequoia National Forest east of Porterville, Calif., on the South Fork.
In both cases, the release is a true comeback. researcher Residual beaver dam found in mountain meadow Tásmam Koyóm streamand in the southern mountains, as Kenneth McDarment, range manager for the Tule River Tribe, said, “We have beavers in our area.” [ancient] Hieroglyphics.
Tribal leaders are working with scientists, nonprofits and the state to prepare beaver-friendly habitat, planting willows and other plants that beavers eat, and installing artificial beaver dam analogues to bring enough water to areas where beavers can survive and establish colonies. water.
The people of Maidu hope that Tásmam Koyóm will become a showcase for traditional ecological knowledge. “Bring back the beavers,” says Lorena Gobert, A spokesman for the Maidu consortium said it was “bringing more balance back to the area and getting it back to…the way it should be.”
As for the Tule River site, as McDament explains, “In 2014 we were going through a drought and the river was drying up. We said, ‘Why not bring the beavers home?’ ”
When the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of waterways covered by the Clean Water Act, it declined to protect “discontinuous” rivers and streams—which include tributaries and wetlands—from development, pollution, and destruction. Beavers helped build, maintain and sustain.
We have destroyed over 50% of the nation’s wetlands, and even more in California. As pilot beaver relocation and restoration plans are codified, California is pushing back against this history and the Supreme Court’s dangerous shortsightedness. It shows the country how political engagement and nature-based solutions can create environmental and economic resilience.
All eyes are now on California…and its beavers.
Leila Philip is the author of “Beverland: How a Strange Rodent Created America.” She is a professor at the College of Holy Cross and serves as professor of humanities.
