Last month, our President Mike Callahan and many other respected beaver experts spoke (virtually) at the California Beaver Summit, a two-day panel of talks highlighting the many ecosystem benefits of beaver. Over 1,ooo Summit attendees learned of the many climate change benefits of beaver-created wetlands, and how we can help to restore them. The lessons in California are applicable to us all. There are several grassroots organizations that are building climate resilience by restoring and protecting beavers, while resolving human-beaver conflicts. These efforts need to be scaled significantly in the face of the climate crisis.

In the wake of the California Beaver Summit, we were inspired to dig a little deeper, and launched an educational effort to bring this knowledge where it matters: policymakers. We decided to build a coalition of like-minded organizations interested in bringing awareness to the success of current beaver wetland restoration programs. With their support, we can educate on how to scale these programs nationally.

Mike wrote an educational letter to policymakers about beaver wetland restoration, and to ask that they consider beaver in their climate change policies. Upon sharing the letter with like-minded organizations, we easily gained ample support from all over the United States (and beyond)! As an extra special touch, we decided to include a copy of Ben Goldfarb’s book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers, along with each letter. As of this week, they have hit the mail, and will be in the hands of important policymakers very soon!

We want to express our sincere gratitude to the many incredible organizations that have written in to show their support for our Climate Change Beaver Coalition effort. We could not make such an impact without you! You can still add your organization to our website, as we continue to raise awareness of the importance of beaver wetland restoration. The more support for this effort the better!

Hannah Gibbons
Beaver Institute Administrator