Illinois Beaver Alliance

The mission of the Illinois Beaver Alliance is to improve the health and function of Illinois watersheds, which will increase climate resilience, improve water quality, increase biodiversity, and create floodwater storage capacity; and to educate the public about the ecological importance of beavers and the modern tools for resolving human-beaver conflicts. Goals:* Promote low-tech, process-based river restoration-the practice of using simple, low unit-cost, structural additions such as locally sourced rock, Beaver Dam Analogs, and anchored log structures that mimic functions and promote specific ecosystem processes-as well as beaver-related restoration to improve Illinois’ degraded watersheds.* Educate stakeholders about the role of beavers in engineering, maintaining, and upgrading wetlands and healthy river systems.* Educate the public about the ecological importance of beavers and how to resolve human-beaver conflicts by protecting trees with tree wrapping and using flow devices to prevent flooding caused by beaver dams.* Share information throughout Illinois and with other states within the Western Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi River Basin that share similar hydrology and water quality issues as Illinois.