Beavers, Fire, and Groundwater Recharge Event

The SLO Beaver Brigade is hosting a two-part fundraising event! The first, fancier part of the fundraiser is an evening at Castoro Cellars on Feb 3, from 6:30-9:30pm with live music, and 2 impactful presentations on how beavers restore streams, replenish groundwater aquifers and protect us from wildfires. We have the renowned eco-hydrologist (a.k.a beaver scientist) Dr. Emily Fairfax, and an equally renowned and seasoned river/stream restorationist, Kevin Swift, speaking for us this evening.   Additionally, the local band Miss Leo's Trio will be playing beautiful music before and after the presentations. Hors d'oeuvres will be provided, but we recommend eating dinner beforehand.

The second, muddier part of the event will be held the next day, Feb 4, and it is a 2-hour educational tour to the beaver ponds led by Dr. Emily Fairfax. You won't want to miss your chance to tour what Dr. Fairfax calls "The most successful, naturally beaver restored river in the southern half of the state!"  This portion of the event has limited space.  We'll be walking right into the water up to knee height to really feel the impact the beavers are making, and the rest of the tour is about a half-mile hike each way on sandy trails. The meet-up location and time details will be emailed to you separately.

There is limited space for the guided tour to the beaver ponds with Dr. Emily Fairfax on Saturday Feb 4th.  Get your tickets early if you want to reserve your space on the tour.  You are welcome to purchase tickets either for both parts of the event ( Friday evening and Saturday tour) or just the fundraising Feb 3rd evening without the tour. We would love to have you at both!  We are unable to sell tickets to just the tour on Saturday, Feb 4th.  Please note that we may see beaver sign rather than beaver ponds after all this rain has washed away most of the active dams in the area!

About our speakers:

Dr. Emily Fairfax is one of the leading hydrologists studying beavers in the country. She is an assistant professor at the California State University Channel Islands, and she studies beaver wetlands across the western U.S (including our very own beaver ponds in Atascadero!) to quantify their wildfire resiliency and more. She has been interviewed for TV and newspaper by PBS, CBS, the New York Times, LA Times and more. Here is a news clip from CBS Morning Edition interviewing Dr. Fairfax at the beaver ponds in Atascadero! CBS Morning Edition     

Kevin Swift founded Swift Water Design in 2016. He and his team are a California-based restoration company focused on "partnering with beavers for watershed health". They improve watershed health by implementing beaver coexistence devices, as well as mimicking the beavers by building human-made Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs). His company has built over 1,000 BDAs across California and other western states, and they have restored miles of rivers and creeks.