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Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 2026 6th Annual Eco Hero Award
Watersheds, Our Basins of Relations
An Evening with Kate Lundquist & Brock Dolman
Honoring Two Transformative Advocates for Beaver, Salmon & Watersheds
Sunday, March 8, 6:30-9pm, 2026
TICKETS $14, $24, & Friends of Eco Hero $100; Kids & Students Free
Location: Lobero Theatre
33 E Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Tickets on Sale Now: Lobero Ticket Office
Food, fun & conversation follows with Reception in the Lobero Courtyard
“Now and, in the future, nothing is, or will be, more valuable than pristine watersheds” Brock Dolman
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network celebrates its 6th Annual Eco Hero Award, a community event that honors those making significant and positive change in the world for more than 30 years. This year we honor Brock Dolman & Kate Lundquist of the WATER Institute, who will join us in person at the event.
Brock Dolman & Kate Lundquist are transformative advocates and activists for beaver, salmon & the watersheds they inhabit. Co-directors of the WATER Institute at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC) in Sonoma, CA, they have launched an extraordinarily effective movement for salmon & beaver, that has engaged individuals, communities and policymakers, changing hearts & minds about how to coexist with the natural world.
In launching their Bring Back the Beaver campaign, they established beavers’ reputation as “Climate Restoration Heroes”. A keystone species, beavers build dam complexes that create wetlands that are effective carbon sinks and re-hydrate dry and dusty landscapes suffering from drought. During wildfires they become living fire breaks and refuge for wildlife and even firefighters.
Brock, known for his entertaining fast speak poetry style when giving presentations, coined the now widely used "Slow it, Spread it, Sink it, Store It, Share It” slogan to encourage strategies to help keep water on the landscape. Water is the basis of all life, and in their co-authored Basins of Relations Citizens Guide to Protecting Our Watersheds, Brock & Kate note “Now and, in the future, nothing is, or will be, more valuable than pristine watersheds”. Nature based solutions are what they propose, informing and educating in a clear and entertaining style.
Brock & Kate and the WATER Institute have worked collaboratively with tribal groups to re-establish beaver on their lands. A Beaver Help Desk was launched to answer questions from the public about coexisting with beaver. Working with Federal and State government agencies, scientists, ranchers, farmers, tribal governments, and other landowners in new partnerships, with a shared goal to help restore river systems and create watershed resiliency. With career opportunities especially for future generations, the WATER Institute offer training for watershed & beaver restoration work.
The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Eco Hero Award honors those individuals who have committed themselves to work in service of the planet and its inhabitants for more than thirty years, with actual solutions and concrete ways forward that benefit many, often on a global scale. We encourage the next generation to come and participate in a robust Q&A, a special part of every Eco Hero event, and to learn from our Eco Heroes who have so much to share.
Past recipients of the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Eco Hero Award include John D. Liu; Paul Stamets & Louie Schwartzberg; John & Nancy Jack Todd, Albert Bates; Bill & Athena Steen, with Roxanne Swentzell.
Food, fun & conversation follows with Reception in the Lobero Courtyard
The event takes place on Sunday; March 8; 6:30–9pm, at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. TICKETS on Sale Now: $14, $24, & Friends of Eco Hero $100. More information 805-962-2571; email:[email protected]; www.sbpermaculture.org.
A Community Event Hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
www.sbpermaculture.org
Co-sponsored by: Blue Sky Biochar, Bamboo DNA, Buena Onda Empanadas, Teeccino, Ah Juice, Community Environmental Council (CEC), SBCC Environmental Horticulture, Explore Ecology, Regenerative Landscape Alliance, Island Seed & Feed, Orella Ranch/Gaviota Givings, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, Sustainable World Radio, Santa Barbara Agriculture & Farm Foundation, Sweet Wheel Farm; Paradise Found, Quail Springs Permaculture, Hour Books, Mesa Harmony Garden, Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, Building Health Matters, Central Coast Building Council, Sun Rose Designs; Sweet Smiling Landscape; SLO Beaver Brigade; Santa Barbara Beaver Brigade; Occidental Arts & Ecology Center; OAEC Water Institute; Voice Magazine, & the Santa Barbara Independent
Learn More…
Bios:
Brock Dolman cofounded the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC) in 1994, and with Kate Lundquist is the co-director of the Water Institute at OAEC. A wildlife biologist and watershed ecologist, he has been active in the Bring Back the Beaver movement in California for over twenty years. He received the Salmonid Restoration Golden Pipe Award in 2012 for his leading role in restoring native habitat for beavers and salmon. For over a decade, he has served as an appointed commissioner on the Sonoma County Fish & Wildlife Commission
Kate Lundquist is the codirector of the Occidental Arts & Ecology’s WATER Institute, and the Bring Back the Beaver Campaign in Sonoma County. As a conservationist, educator and ecological artist, Kate works with landowners, communities, and resource agencies to remove obstacles impeding progress to restore healthy watersheds and native habitats for beavers and other wildlife.
Publications: (free downloadable on OAEC Water Institute website)
Basins of Relations: A Citizens Guide to Restoring & Protecting Our Watersheds
Beaver In California: Creating a Culture of Stewardship
Videos:
Processed Based Restoration & Beaver Restoration with Swift Water Design:
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Event Venue
Lobero Theatre, 27 E Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101-2213, United States
Tickets
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