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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/18/2022 PC, Lienhart - Received during the meetingHello, My name is Cooper Lienhart, and I am a member of the non-profit organization the SLO Beaver Brigade. I am here to tell you about the amazing opportunity we have to partner with beavers, so that with little to no cost, we can proactively defend ourselves against our greatest environmental problems: fire, drought, groundwater loss, climate change, water quality, floods, erosion, and biodiversity loss. How can beavers possibly address all of these problems?? It all boils down to their ability to hold water on our landscape. Beavers are native, and they used to live in every river, lake and stream in the county until they were hunted to near extinction for their fur. Right now, most of our rivers and streams are incised and degraded, so whenever the rains come, the water just rushes straight to the ocean, and by summer many of our streams are completely dry. But, beavers are able to naturally reverse this process. Beaver families build a series of dams in creeks and rivers, which give them deep ponds where they can easily escape from predators. These dams slow the water down, spreading it out, and allowing it to sink into the groundwater table. Think Slow It, Spread It, Sink It. The beavers can turn these single -thread streams into lush wetlands, and that's where we see all these ecosystem benefits. The vegetation thrives around beaver ponds, so you have this wide, consistent water, surrounded by healthy trees that are also full of water; this combination makes for perfect fire buffers. Scientists studying this found that even during mega wildfires, beaver wetlands just won't burn. This could really benefit our own firefighters to have these natural fire breaks so they can surround and contain fires before they spread. As for droughts and recharging our groundwater basins, beavers hold water on the landscape and underground. Each dam forces water underground, where it reconnects to the groundwater basin, thus recharging our aquifers at every dam. But that's not all, it also settles out and catches pollutants, heavy metals and excess nutrients, and then the water resurfaces downstream cooler, and cleaner; perfect for frogs and fish such as Steelhead trout. Governor Newsom Just launched the Beaver Restoration Program this summer, which makes it easier to do low-cost beaver -based restoration projects, and it finally allows us to relocate beavers instead of having them killed. So now is the perfect time for us to embrace beavers and save our water! I could talk about beavers all day, but it is much more impactful to see it and feel it yourself, so I invite you all to join us on one of our free educational tours to the beaver ponds in Atascadero. We have one this Sunday October 23rd, or on Saturday, November 51" from 9:30-11:30 am. You can sign up and find more information on our website slobeaverbrigade.com. Thanks, and I hope to see you there! SLO BEAVER BRIGADE n-Profit Community Advocacy Group _rBrigade.com facebook.com/groups/slobeaverbrigade slobeaverbrigade@gmail.com SLO BEAVER BRIGADE • Community Education; • Beaver Solutions �':•t: �;_ ?; • River &Creek Restoration .1.3.M. ' • Volunteer Organizing LJ'j'=:' �'� u•.°i =: Our mission is to raise awareness that beavers live in San Luis Obispo County, to educate about the many benefits beavers bring, and to instill support for the beavers who live amongst us.