Many stream and meadow environments in western North America historically supported beaver (Castor canadensis) but have been simplified and degraded, impairing beaver recolonization. In these systems, beaver related restoration (BRR) has the potential to recover stream complexity, increase groundwater exchange, and regain floodplain connectivity. By mimicking beaver, we are learning how to use available onsite materials such as trees, rocks, and sod to slow and spread flows and capture sediment and other material delivered by natural storm pulses to aggrade incised channels. Strategic applications of BRR could add to the multi-tiered efforts to manage pressing threats to forests and water supply by increasing resistance to wildfire and reducing sediment accumulation in reservoirs while also benefiting biodiversity. However, we are just beginning to develop the restoration tools and workforce to meet the demand for the increased pace and scale needed. For example, we launched the new California Process-based Restoration Network in 2022 with a goal of increasing capacity to restore degraded riverscapes (calpbr.org). In addition to building the human capacity to implement restoration projects, research and monitoring remain important for understanding and identifying where and when BRR can succeed and what approaches are best to maximize ecohydrological benefits. We use an ongoing study comparing the application of BRR approaches in headwater catchments with differing disturbance regimes in the Sierra Nevada, CA to illustrate: 1) how partner coalitions can be assembled to facilitate BRR approval and implementation, and 2) how research and monitoring can be used to guide restoration practice with the goal of obtaining faster, more effective, and lower-cost restoration successes.
