This is a four-day project to bolster potential beaver habitat in Ochoco National Forest. Join us for one day or all four days!
Difficulty level: Medium
Itinerary: Volunteers are welcome to arrive on-site for the day, carpool from Think Wild on Tuesday, or arrive on your schedule to camp at our reserved site at the nearby Deep Creek Campground. Restoration work will take place between 9AM and 5PM on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Tasks will include trimming limbs of nearby trees, transporting vegetation and soil to the instream work area, and working in the stream to act like a beaver – securing sticks in a human-made dam. We will be hiking off-trail on uneven terrain and carrying moderately heavy loads of supplies.
What you’ll need: A positive attitude, strong work ethic, and collaborative mindset. Plan to bring clothes and food to keep you comfortable throughout the day, as well as camping equipment if you aim to camp. There are no bathrooms at the work site, so be prepared to leave no trace.
About the location and project: Our partnership with the Ochoco National Forest, including restoration and outreach, supports their goals for Jackson Creek watershed scale restoration and existing low-tech process-based restoration in the Lower Happy Camp area. Wet meadow complexes are an important hydrologic component within these watersheds and across these federally managed lands. Beaver dam analogs (BDAs) are hand-built structures that mimic and promote beaver dam activity. They are permeable, temporary structures built using natural materials, often from onsite. A key to the long-term success of efforts on Forest Service lands is the return of beavers to the landscape. Volunteers will be an essential part of this project and will increase the return on investment on works already initiated by the Forest Service. We will learn about and discuss beaver, wildlife habitat, barriers to habitat connectivity, and riparian restoration.
We’ll need about 10 people each day for this project – so share this with your friends and make a fun week out of it while helping to restore beaver habitat!