Feeling Beaverish? Come Help the Beavers!
Are you wanting to help climate regeneration by helping beavers to thrive? The SLO Beaver Brigade is working to protect and enhance beaver habitat in San Luis Obispo County and educate people about beavers and the benefits they bring to our water quantity and quality while also providing buffers from wildfire and enriching biodiversity.
We can use your help!
Please continue reading to learn how you can be a part of this community effort for the beavers.
Donate to the SLO Beaver Brigade for these current needs:
- Webcams, SD cards, locks, and batteries for monitoring the beaver dams in order to document their progress in dam building and spot destruction to the dams and to collect data on other species present at the dams. Our intention is to install webcams at dams in Templeton and Paso Robles and then continue expanding this effort. The cost of these Beaver habitat monitoring supplies for one dam is about $300. Your donation can contribute to this effort, which has recorded over 80 species of wildlife to date at the Atascadero dams.
- Fabric caution tape (we wish to avoid use of plastic in the river, but fabric is more costly), signs, stakes, twine, etc. to cordon on beaver dams, keeping them safe from people and vehicles in the river. The cost of these supplies for one dam is about $100. Your donation can help with these dam protection supplies.
- Supplies for Phragmites removal – We use clippers and other tools for hand removal of Phragmites australis. (See “insert title of Phragmites article here” for updates on this effort.) Your donation can help offset these invasives removal purchases.
- General Operating Support – Ours is currently a mostly volunteer core team, but in order to build our capacity to advocate for beavers, engage volunteers, carry out educational activities, write grants and network with local, state and national organizations, in short, to do the work that helps the beavers to enhance water and biodiversity, we need to build a small paid staff. Your donations can help us to expand our climate regeneration work!
Volunteer with the SLO Beaver Brigade!
- New opportunities – We are close to rolling out new volunteer positions in riparian and watershed protection. Some examples of volunteer tasks include going out to active beaver dam sites, replacing sd card and batteries on our cams, monitoring and removing invasives and trash, and more! Please email dolores@slobeaverbrigade.com to be put on our email list for more information.
- Beaver Festival 2024 – If you don’t have time to commit to volunteering right now, please consider saving March 23rd, 2024 on your calendar for a fun day volunteering in Mission Plaza for the 2nd Annual SLO County Beaver Festival. Watch for more information in upcoming newsletters or email dolores@slobeaverbrigade.com to be put on our list of Festival volunteers.
Connect the SLO Beaver Brigade with Resources:
- Office space – The SLO Beaver Brigade is currently in need of office space (ideally with some storage space for river monitoring supplies such as waders, SD cards and batteries for webcams) for our small staff. Do you or someone you know have such a space that could be donated, perhaps with a longer-term arrangement for paying rent in the future? Please email audrey@slobeaverbrigade.com.
Volunteer efforts, donations and connections to resources will have direct, visible impacts on the health of our beaver populations and habitats, and on the health of our groundwater basins, riparian habitats, wildfire buffers, water quality, and biodiversity. Just like the beavers, our small efforts can make big impacts. Stick by stick, action by action, you will be adding to the health of our watersheds. Thank you for your interest in helping beavers!