Think Wild Central Oregon
$49,870

Beaver Works Oregon (BWO) is a program under Think Wild dedicated to supporting beaver success on Oregon’s high desert landscape. Through the BWO program, this project will address these limiting factors by providing beaver habitat restoration, outreach, and support services to landholders, agencies, and the public in Central and Eastern Oregon. Our project works to establish BeaverHOODs, stream reaches with adequate food, water, sediment, and construction building materials, as well as human tolerance for beavers to settle, establish, survive, and reproduce. To achieve this, we collaborate with local watershed councils, agencies, and landholders to identify, consult on, and plan habitat restoration projects primarily in three Oregon Conservation Strategy ecoregions: Blue Mountain, Northern Basin and Range and East Cascades. We then take volunteer groups out to the worksites to implement and monitor the projects by spending a weekend “recreating for good” - planting, camping, and learning about beaver habitat, healthy ecosystems and working lands.  As we build community understanding of why beavers matter and how to invite them back to our watersheds, we also build opportunities for more habitat restoration throughout the region. OCRF support for this project will promote deeper, wider expansion of beaver-focused outreach, habitat services, coexistence solutions, and opportunities for “recreating for good” on the land.