After disappearing for decades, seven beavers returned to California's Tule River and began restoring the landscape

For generations, beavers were a familiar part of the Tule River Tribe's ancestral lands in California's southern Sierra Nevada.

Tribal elders remembered seeing them in high-elevation meadows, and ancient pictographs estimated to be between 500 and 1,000 years old depict the animals alongside the South Fork Tule River.

But after decades of trapping and habitat changes, the beavers disappeared from the reservation altogether.

In June 2024, that changed when a family of seven North American beavers was released into the South Fork Tule River watershed as part of a long-term restoration effort led by the Tule River Tribe and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

Two years later, the reintroduction continues to be recognised as a landmark example of how bringing back a single native species can help restore water, wildlife and ecological resilience across an entire landscape.