Officials deploy unlikely 'engineers' for crucial project in nature area: 'We're happy to be moving along as we are'

In 2023, the state of California released seven beavers on Indigenous Mountain Maidu lands in northern California. The beavers were restored to a part of their native range where they have been absent since the mid-19th century, Mongabay reported.

This move is part of a program to remove beavers from areas where their activities are causing problems by interfering with human developments. The program relocates the beavers to areas where their dam-building is most needed.

The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Sonoma County, California has been spearheading this effort. One of its co-directors, Kate Lindquist, told Mongabay that this project echoes beaver conservation efforts in other states like Oregon, Washington, and Utah. Authorities have been focused on this small but vital species for even longer in those places

Beavers are "ecosystem engineers," a species whose deliberate moves to shape their environment to fit their needs have a massive, healthy impact on ecosystems.

By building dams, they cause water to back up and create marshes and meadows that are home to many other species. This also helps reduce the amount of silt downstream, which improves water quality and changes the size of streams and their rate of flow. Finally, the wetlands created by beavers help stop forest fires in their tracks — a function that California desperately needs.

The journey to this point has not been straightforward, partly because the role of beavers in California's ecosystem was misunderstood. It was widely believed that beavers were only native to a small portion of California's lowlands.

In reality, they had actually been hunted out of their much wider range, which included the mountain regions. To begin restoring beavers to these areas, experts first had to prove that it was a restoration and that they belonged there.

Fortunately, historical Indigenous artwork, clues from Indigenous languages in the area, and remnants of ancient beaver dams proved their original presence throughout the state.

That has led to a program to restore them to tribal lands. Although many of these releases have resulted in the predation of the beavers, the population living in a meadow called Tásmam Koyóm, or "tall grass," is alive and well. It's even increased water coverage in the meadow by 22%.

"We're happy to be moving along as we are, and hopefully we'll keep receiving beaver to add to our watershed," said Kenneth McDarment, a member of the Tule River Tribe and former tribal council member, per Mongabay.