The Beaver Coalition
$50,000
 Additional Funding  by Oregon Zoo

Video courtesy of Oregon Zoo

Oregon is experiencing extreme drought conditions, and science shows that beavers and beaver-modified floodplains provide for water security and ecosystem resiliency.  There is urgency to increase the pace and scale of beaver-based restoration projects for the benefit of our State. Restoration practitioners need tools that will highlight where to prioritize beaver-based restoration projects in Oregon, that will provide a baseline assessment of beaver presence and activity from which to plan their efforts. This project will leverage the collective energy of The Beaver Coalition’s state-wide “Practitioner Collaborative” group to facilitate planning for the development of such a pair of tools: an accessible statewide Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) model and a cohesive approach to collecting beaver presence and activity.  These Global Information System (GIS) tools will prove critically useful for practitioners to identify and prioritize opportunities statewide, across various organizations and projects across the ecoregions identified in the Oregon Conservation Strategy (OCS). The OCS highlighted “partnering with beavers” as a recommended approach for multiple limiting factors in both the “Wetlands” and “Flowing Water and Riparian Habitats” ecoregions. Funding this proposal would provide capacity for collaboration between partners and contracted technical experts to facilitate the foundational project planning that these two complex, interdisciplinary project efforts will require.