Castor Camp - September 12 - 14, 2025
Castor Camp 2025 is a three-day, small-format gathering for a curated group of beaver conservation ecologists and practitioners. Held at Pine Creek Conservation Area in Eastern Oregon (and proximate to very active beaver families), this immersive experience is for those committed to supporting beaver success—viewing beavers first as individuals with their own needs and natural history and by understanding beavers on their own terms.
This camp is about sharing grounded, practical knowledge. It’s a space to learn directly from peers, explore what truly supports beavers and their habitats, and deepen our understanding of their behavior and needs.
With Robinson Creek as our backdrop, we’ll follow a light agenda that anchors open discussions, field-based learning, and collective reflection. The intimate, non-conference setting ensures space for meaningful exchange and collaboration.
Goals include strengthening relationships, broadening conversations around human roles in beaver success, and shaping a shared voice to support the restoration community through a beaver-centered lens.
Castor Camp celebrates the expertise in the room. Come ready to share, listen, and return with clearer insight and renewed purpose.
Camp themes are expected to include the topics below, but we also invite participants to suggest their own:
- What's on the Menu
The ecology of Riparian vegetation communities, their establishment, regeneration, and natural history. We'll discuss preferred beaver forage, forage requirements, foraging behavior/patterns and nutritional needs. - Life stages and the annual cycles and seasonality of beavers
- Field protocols for getting to know your local beavers better, through the American Beaver Activity Survey Protocol, and Beaver Occupancy Intent and habitat scoring, and trail camera deployment.
- A guest talk from John Day Fossil Beds' Dr. Nicholas Fomosa on the natural history and paleontology of beavers in Oregon
- A social event Saturday evening
- Where do we go from here? Taking the beaver conversation forward.
Camp Cost: $35 per participant to cover supplies and materials. The campground at Robinson Creek is provided by PCCA.
20 participant spots are available. Please register by Friday, June 20, 2025.
Please provide us with your completed CTWS waiver before camp starts, email to kevin@ctwsbnr.org
Questions? Contact pamela@westernbeavers.org.
