Thanks for Beaver Crewing with us in 2024!

50+ FIELD DAYS IN 2024 SUPPORTING EASTERN OREGON BEAVER RECOVERY!

Thank you for your contributions toward supporting beaver success in 2024. Totaling over the year 383 volunteer 'man-days' A unit of measurement, especially in accountancy; based on a standard number of man-hours in a day of work., in 50 separate field days and 20 unique projects advancing beaver recovery in our eastern Oregon communities. Here's a look . . .

 

There is no doubt, as a 100% volunteer initiative -- through you -- Western Beavers' is making a difference for eastern Oregon beaver recovery.

WHAT'S AHEAD IN 2025

Be on the lookout for these upcoming project opportunities in planning for the year ahead:

  • Harvesting wild and nursery cuttings from around the area (2 field days in the works)
  • Planting cuttings in Spring and again in the Fall
  • Continuing BRAT surveying with 200 more stream reaches planned for the Crooked River Watershed (in addition to the 115 stream reaches surveyed by volunteers, interns and USFS personnel last Fall)
  • Outreaching to students in rural Oregon with hands on activities and our beaver "touch table"
  • Supporting agencies through a community of beaver based restoration best practices
  • Continuing work with community-based historical societies and museums to share the story of beavers as an essential element in Oregon's past and its future for healthy lands and watersheds
  • and more!

 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  - Margaret Mead

OPPORTUNITIES IN 2025 TO ADVANCE YOUR LEARNINGS
Go deeper with us in the year ahead if you're considering a future in beaver based restoration or just love advancing your knowledge and your skills. Please reach out to Reese to discuss these upcoming areas of real-world project learning opportunities:

  • Ways to deploy AI toward beaver recovery efforts
  • Remote sensing and modeling beaver habitat and occupancy at scale
  • Beaver forage and vegetation monitoring
  • Beaver conflict devices and mitigation solutions

POST, OREGON BUILDING BEAVER DAM ANALOGUES (BDA'S)
October 21 and October 27, 2023

Help establish BeaverHOODs this Fall 2023 by joining a volunteer crew with the Crooked River Watershed Council.

Two hundred years ago beavers numbered in the thousands in this watershed, when 1823-1841 Hudson Bay Company and British trappers moved through to create a Fur Desert - a dead zone that would discourage Americans from settling into the Oregon Territories.  Help beaver recovery by expanding beaver habitat, creating the conditions that beavers need to succeed.

BDA crew work will include: harvesting and transporting willow sticks, weaving willow sticks into posts in the stream, hauling buckets of organic fill behind the new structures.

These completed BDA structures will help to reengage the floodplain, improve vegetation diversity and support beaver food establishment.

VOLUNTEER IN THE FIELD
Crooked River Watershed this Fall 2024
​There are a few ways to volunteer in the field around habitat restoration this Spring, join Western Beavers and the Crooked River Watershed Council for these projects:
- Build Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) in Post, November 1st and 2nd
- Willow cutting and planting days around Prineville, November 22nd and 23rd
- BRAT Stream Survey with us this Fall 2024

Learn more at CRWC.INFO/VOLUNTEER