California is experiencing another year of devastating wildfires. In the midst of all the flames, however, islands of green are common. They are meadows and streams occupied by beavers. Our long-term drought has led to millions of acres of dead and dying trees and brush resulting in extremely hazardous burning conditions. Beaver dams mitigate fire hazard […]
Beavers and Love and Paint
It started with a wall. Not really, it actually started with a group of artists. And community members. They got together in Atascadero and formed The Equality Mural Project. It is a public art project dedicated to adding 10 murals to downtown Atascadero depicting different aspects of EQUALITY. Did we mention that Victoria Carranza is […]
Introducing…. the Salinas River Beavers
These photos were taken on the Salinas River of the beavers that are being researched by Dr. Emily Fairfax of CSU Channel Islands. Donald Quintana is a local wildlife photographer that has taken an interest in beavers and supporting the SLO Beaver Brigade in getting the message out about beavers and their benefits. Look how […]
Beavers Fight Fire
by Franklin (Fred) Frank, Former San Luis Obispo Cal Fire and County Fire Chief, and Fire Captain at the Cal Fire Paso station Overhead fire photo Courtesy of Joseph Wheaton (Utah State University) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. As the former San Luis Obispo Cal Fire and County Fire Chief, and Fire Captain at […]
Something To Chew On
What’s the difference between a healthy stream and an unhealthy stream, and why does it matter? It may seem hard to tell if a river or stream is healthy. I always thought that if there was running water it was a stream, and that was that. But now that I’ve spent a lot of time in […]
One Year at the dam
I’ve really been enjoying these images we’ve taken of the beaver dam on the Upper Salinas River once a month over this past year. Here are two 360 images, one from May 2020 and the other is from May 2021. What differences do you notice? This 360 was taken May 2020 by Dr. Emily Fairfax […]