Survival rate is 40-60%. They’re going to make some changes to the process so they’re not just feeding beavers to predators. Some also migrated to preferable areas, which will help the humans seek better areas for release.
The main takeaway for me is that apparently they didn’t actually get the first beaver release done until October 2023. Assuming it’s the same plan this post was talking about in 2015, that’s eight fucking years of bureaucratic red tape just to get to a couple of tiny pilot projects (28 beavers total).
Tbf, they had been considered a pest species by farmers, and we also had a drought and a bunch of wildfires, so maybe not just bureaucratic red tape. They suspect at least one colony was messed up by humans. But another one left a good beginning of a dam and den, so the next batch will find a fixer-upper to live in instead of having to build from scratch while dodging coyotes and pumas or whatever.
I could’ve started a beaver farm and let a bunch of those little shits loose in that time and I don’t know jack shit about raising beavers. (Partial sarcasm)
Original article if you’re like me and had to know if this was real. October 2015… what a simpler time for the ol’ U S of A.
So 10 years on, what’s the result? Did it work out the way they hoped?
https://mavensnotebook.com/2025/04/08/cdfw-sees-ecosystem-engineers-at-work-in-beaver-restoration-pilot-projects/
Survival rate is 40-60%. They’re going to make some changes to the process so they’re not just feeding beavers to predators. Some also migrated to preferable areas, which will help the humans seek better areas for release.
The main takeaway for me is that apparently they didn’t actually get the first beaver release done until October 2023. Assuming it’s the same plan this post was talking about in 2015, that’s eight fucking years of bureaucratic red tape just to get to a couple of tiny pilot projects (28 beavers total).
I can’t say I’m surprised, just disappointed.
Tbf, they had been considered a pest species by farmers, and we also had a drought and a bunch of wildfires, so maybe not just bureaucratic red tape. They suspect at least one colony was messed up by humans. But another one left a good beginning of a dam and den, so the next batch will find a fixer-upper to live in instead of having to build from scratch while dodging coyotes and pumas or whatever.
I could’ve started a beaver farm and let a bunch of those little shits loose in that time and I don’t know jack shit about raising beavers. (Partial sarcasm)