Beavers are small but mighty natural engineers in watersheds, and their activities can significantly contribute to ecosystem health. Encouraging beavers in your protected watersheds can lead to numerous conservation benefits including improving water quality, creating wetland habitats for other species and increasing floodwater storage capacity to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

We welcome you to join us for the upcoming short course Beavers — Natural Allies in Water Quality and Restoring Wetlands on Nov. 12-21. In four 75-minute sessions, experts will be covering various methods and considerations for incorporating beavers into land trusts’ restoration activities and sharing real-world land trust examples to bring these concepts to life. The four session topics include:

  • Beaver ecology and ecosystem services with Dr. Emily Fairfax.
  • Low tech, process-based riverscape restoration with Scott McGill.
  • Co-existence with Dr. Aaron Hall.
  • Beavers – Beacons of hope with Leila Philip.

You can visit the event webpage for more session details. This training is co-sponsored by the Illinois Beaver Alliance. Thanks to the generous support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and The Volgenau Foundation, this course is being offered at a discounted rate. However, we do not want cost to be a barrier to anyone’s ability to attend, so email leklov@lta.org to inquire about limited fee waivers before you register.