Our first San Luis Obispo Beaver Festival on April 1st in Mission Plaza in downtown SLO was a hit! This event attracted over 1,000 beaver believers and members of the general public to downtown San Luis Obispo, from SLO locals to Santa Barbara to the Cuyama Valley, the Mission was full of eager people ready to learn about beavers and their benefits.
Beaver Festival, April 1st, Mission Plaza. Photo by Brittany App.
Dr. Emily Fairfax did an amazing job sharing with our San Luis Obispo crowd about the benefits the beavers provide our watersheds, Garrett Costello of Symbiotic Restoration shared about Process-Based Restoration and the CalPBR Network. Garrett invited folks interested in learning restoration techniques to volunteer with Symbiotic Restoration on upcoming restoration projects this summer.
Michael Khus, member of the Coastal Band of Chumash Nation and affiliate of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council shared about the similarities between the treatment of beavers to the treatment of indigenous peoples of California. That educational piece has its own blog post here.
One of my favorite moments was Cooper Lienhart making his musical debut singing along with The Loving Mosh‘s Go Little Beavers Go. Luckily, it was captured on video for all of us to enjoy again and again!
We want to thank our food and drink vendors: Tiny Cafe,
Baby Bear Biscuits, and WhaleBird Kombucha .Photos by Brittany App.
We also want to thank our awesome volunteers, especially the Atascadero High School Earth Club! They showed up big for us at the festival, with talented face painters and enthusiastic beaver tail designers keeping everyone fully tailed at the event!
And all the incredible organizations and artists that showed up for the beavers and our wetlands, thank you and see you next year!
Artist Liliana Monge of RippleStudioArt and Artist Kira Guillermo showing their beaver support. Photo by Brittany App.
And photographer Brittany App for capturing all of these amazing photos for us!