New Mexico Beaver Project
Beavers can make New Mexico a more lush, resilient, hospitable, and productive place for people and wildlife.
We are working to restore beavers in New Mexico waterways to save water, recharge aquifers, mitigate flooding and drought, reduce wildfire damage, create aquatic and wetlands habitat, and provide more clean, cool water to all life that relies on it – including us.
New Mexico Beaver Project
Beavers can make New Mexico a more lush, resilient, hospitable, and productive place for people and wildlife.
We are working to restore beavers in New Mexico waterways to save water, recharge aquifers, mitigate flooding and drought, reduce wildfire damage, create aquatic and wetlands habitat, and provide more clean, cool water to all life that relies on it – including us.
New Mexico Beaver Project
Beavers can make New Mexico a more lush, resilient, hospitable, and productive place for people and wildlife.
Beavers improve the ecosystem for humans and animals
My View by Julia Morgan My partner, Alex, and I live in an old adobe schoolhouse in Ocate, about an hour’s drive north of Las Vegas, N.M. We raise Valais Blackneck Goats with our two livestock guardian dogs and are also volunteer wildland firefighters. On the...
Beavers + Beer Taos Edition – Wednesday, September 25th, 5:30 – 7:00 PM
EVENT DETAILS HERE We are having our third installment of Beavers + Beer in Taos next week, September 25th (invite attached) and we’d love if you could join us! You’ll park your car at Fred Baca Park and take a very quick stroll to the Taos Land Trust (there will be...
Can Wildlife Services Learn to Believe in Beavers?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture killed more than 23,000 beavers in 2017. There’s a better way to manage our ecosystem engineers. Each spring Wildlife Services, the branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture tasked with controlling problematic fauna, engages in a...
The Beaver Seekers: Citizen scientists are helping restore the ecosystem engineers to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
Beavers, once pilloried as pests, have undergone an image makeover in the Beaver State, thanks in part to legislative champions. Last year Oregon’s governor signed the “Beaver Believer” bill, which recognizes the rodent’s potential role in mitigating climate change....
Beavers reintroduced to CA watershed for first time in a century
A family of the largest rodents in North America were released in a California watershed “for the first time in over a century,” officials said. Beavers were once staples of the watershed on the Tule River Indian Reservation, and they were featured in pictographs...
California Assembly Overwhelmingly Supports “Beaver Bill”
SACRAMENTO, CA—Yesterday, Assembly Bill (AB) 2196 by Assemblymember Damon Connolly (D-San Rafael) passed the State Assembly by a vote of 72-0. Sponsored by the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, AB 2196 aims to ensure the longevity of the Beaver Restoration...
Fighting fire with beavers: How dam-building rodents are deployed to prevent megafires, restore scorched wildlands
Beaver wetlands provide a wildlife refuge from wildfire. Photo by Emily Fairfax. Stretches of river that had beaver dams fared better in three fearsome Colorado fires in 2020. People charged with repairing wildfire damage are taking heed. River segments hosting...
Experts Say Beavers Could Help Save California from Climate Change
“Beaver dams improve water quality and control water downstream, repair eroded channels, reconnect streams to their floodplains, and the ponds and flooded areas create habitat for many plants and animals,” DFW wrote in its May proposal. “It might be odd, but beavers are an untapped, creative climate-solving hero that helps prevent the loss of biodiversity facing California.”
New Mexico Magazine: The Gila Wilderness At 100
A study by the National Park Service demonstrated “that beavers and their associated dams play an important role in the formation, function, and persistence of riparian wetlands.” By creating more complex river flows, beavers produce healthier wetlands, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, increase biodiversity, and raise the water table, stabilizing threatened ecosystems.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife Releases Beavers into the Wild for the First Time in Nearly 75 Years
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has launched the initial phase of its beaver translocation activities, recently conducting the first beaver conservation release in nearly 75 years. Working with the Maidu Summit Consortium, CDFW released a family...
Study: Even during intense wildfires, beaver-dammed waterways provide major wildfire protection
Wildfires are increasing in size and intensity, and billions are spent every year fighting them. New research published by the Geological Society of America suggests land managers could have a new ally to turn to: beavers. When beavers get to work along mountain...
The US is bringing back nature’s best firefighters: beavers
For decades, beavers were considered pests – trapped and shot on sight. Now the attitude towards nature's best engineers is changing, and farmers are working to bring them back. Jay Wilde stared at the dry creek on the ranch his family had owned for decades for the...
Beavers released into California wild for the first time in 75 years
Beavers are native to Northern California, but their population was practically decimated during the fur rush in the 1800s, when maritime traders converged in the Bay Area and California’s Central Coast to harvest the valuable, chestnut-colored fur from the species,...
How Beavers Help Birds and Other Species
New research shows that these ecosystem engineers can be an ally in stopping the decline of biodiversity. Researchers in Poland have found another reason to love beavers: They benefit wintering birds. The rodents, once maligned as destructive pests, have been getting...
History of Beavers – a brief history of beaver numbers in North America
Before widespread fur trapping began in the 17th century, there were likely between 100 million and 400 million beavers in North America. Nearly every waterway held beavers. And historical accounts paint a picture of an American West that was relatively wet and green....
When it comes to fighting climate change, California says consider the beaver
As California grapples with drought, a record heat wave and persistent wildfires, one state agency is turning to the beaver in its battle against climate change. The large rodents, according to researchers, are resourceful engineers capable of increasing water...