Watch out – the Beaver Brigade is here!

Ecologistics welcomes its newest sponsored organization, SLO Beaver Brigade.  Who knew we had beavers in the Salinas River?  Certainly not the Ecologistics Board of Directors until we were taken for a short hike off the de Anza trail in Atascadero followed by a lovely wade in a pond created by a beaver dam.   Our guides were Beaver Brigade founder Audrey Taub and Professor Emily Fairfax from Cal State Channel Islands, a beaver expert who is doing research on beavers in California.  It was a hot summer day in the north county but literally within a few yards we went from a dusty trail with dried vegetation to a cool, green habitat filled with willows, cattails and pollywogs, all thanks to a large beaver dam that stretched across a section of the Salinas.

SLO Beaver Brigade’s mission is to raise awareness there are beavers among us and to educate the public of the many benefits that beavers provide to an ecosystem, including their creation of fish habitat and wildfire safety zones, and their ability to slow, spread and sink water runoff.   There is plenty of information on their web site.  Donations are welcome and watch for more opportunities to join a Salinas beaver hike.