• Kate Lundquist

Our speaker is Kate Lundquist. Kate co-directs the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center’s WATER Institute and the Bring Back the Beaver Campaign based in Sonoma County, California. Kate collaborates with landowners, communities, tribes, conservation organizations and resource agencies to uncover obstacles, identify strategic solutions, and implement beaver and process-based restoration treatments to conserve watersheds, recover listed species, increase water security and build resilience to climate change (www.oaec.org/beaver).

A vital part of aquatic ecosystems across the continent, the North American beaver came close to extinction in California by the early 1900s. Thanks to the good work of diverse advocates, this ecosystem engineer is making a comeback. Resource managers are learning to partner with beaver to restore watershed health, recover endangered species and increase resiliency to drought, wildfire and floods. Kate will discuss what beaver restoration is, how it can benefit ecosystem function, share some water retention success stories and give an update on the CA Fish and Wildlife’s new Beaver Restoration Program.

December 7, 2022

Chapters available:
0:00 Introduction
1:44 OAEC’s BRING BACK THE BEAVER CAMP
3:02 BEAVER ARE NATIVE TO CALIFORNIA AND W NEARLY TRAPPED TO EXTINCTION
5:54 AQUATIC HABITAT IS CRITICAL TO BEAVERS’ SUCCES
10:11 KEYSTONE SPECIES & ECOSYSTEM ENGIN
11:02 BEAVER DAMS HELP BUFFER CLIMATE EXTREN
12:46 BEAVER DAMS IMPROVE WATER QUALITY,T NUTRIENTS AND BUILD SOILS
13:48 BEAVER DAMS HELP RECHARGE GROUNDWA AND DELAY RELEASE INTO THE DRY SEASON
15:18 BEAVER DAMS HELP RESTORE INCISED STREAMS SUSIE CREEK – CARLIN, NEVADA 1992 TO 1999 TO 201
16:44 FIGHT INCISION
18:18 CALIFORNIA RESOURCE AGENCIES ARE RECOGNIZING BEAVER AND BASED RESTORATION AS CLIMATE SMART NATURE-BASED SOLUT
18:55 NEW CDFW BEAVER RESTORAT
23:15 BEAVER & PROCESS-BASED RESTORATION SCIE The Beaver Restoration
25:55 MANAGE FLOODING WITH FLEXIBLE POND LEV
28:15 “BEAVER BACK SAVER” DEVICE PILOT
32:40 BEAVER RESTORATION IN DOT
38:39 CALIFORNIA BEAVER SUMMIT
38:57 HELP US MAP BEAVER
39:27 CA Process Based Restoration

• WATER Institute - Occidental Arts & Ecology Center

• Environment - Terrestrial and Riparian/Aquatic
• Reservoir Operations
• Tool and Application Development