For the first time in almost 75 years, beavers have been released into California waters as a part of conservation efforts by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Maidu Summit Consortium.
A family of seven beavers swam their way through Tásmam Koyóm, a tribal community in Plumas County that is on the Mountain Maidu people’s ancestral land. This new family will join a “single resident beaver in the valley” with the goal to re-establish a breeding population, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Ben Cunningham, chairman of the Maidu Summit Consortium, said the valley had beavers years ago, but due to pioneer interference, the population disappeared.
“It’s good to have them back home again,” said Cunningham, who is also Northeastern Maidu. “The beavers are back where they belong.”
These beavers will be important for local tribes and groups like the Maidu Summit Consortium, but also for broader conservation efforts. Beavers are what California Department of Fish and Wildlife Environmental Program Manager Valerie Cook called a “keystone species.” She said they provide a significant ecological benefit to their landscape and to the species around them, and they help build up climate change resilience.
“There’s a cascade of effects where you see (once beavers are gone), other species are no longer there,” Cook said.
Cook described the beavers as an “ecosystem-restoration tool,” calling them vital to engineering aquatic habitats. Having beavers in the area can lead to increased groundwater recharge and increased seasonal water flow. Rather than spending millions of dollar on ecosystem-restoration efforts that include mimicry like beaver dam analogs, officials can let beavers do their part, she said.
“This new opportunity to have beavers translocated into restoration efforts is truly a nature-based solution where we can bring them in and just let them do the work.” Cook said.
