Beaver Water Trust
Securing water rights for wildlife across Southeast Colorado — powered by nature's engineers.
Overview
The Beaver Water Trust is a dedicated program of Wildlife Parks Unlimited focused on a simple but profound truth: for generations, nearly every available water resource has been allocated for human use, and natural ecosystems receive water only when excess is available. The program acquires water rights, restores riparian corridors, and leverages beaver habitat to rebuild self-sustaining wetland systems. 1976 Studios built the digital platform to communicate this vision and drive donations to the water rights acquisition fund.
The Challenge
Water rights are a complex, legally dense subject that most donors find inaccessible. The challenge was making the acquisition of water rights — and the role of beavers as nature's engineers — feel urgent, tangible, and personal. The platform needed to convert visitors into recurring donors across giving levels from $25 to $1,000+.
The Solution
We designed beaver-water-trust.wildlifeparksunlimited.org around the central metaphor of living infrastructure. Rather than expensive engineered solutions, beavers work 24 hours a day — for free — to slow water, recharge groundwater, create wetlands, improve water quality, and reduce erosion. The site features a tiered impact donation system ($25 plants native shrubs, $100 installs a Beaver Dam Analog, $1,000 restores 100 feet of stream corridor), six program descriptions, and a youth conservation initiative. Photo credits include National Park Service and Creative Commons sources.
The Outcome
The Beaver Water Trust platform launched with 1,000+ acre-feet of water protected, 500+ acres of habitat restored, and 200+ volunteer conservation hours logged. The site's clear impact tiers have made it one of the most conversion-optimized donation experiences in the WPU ecosystem. Six interconnected programs — from water rights acquisition to youth conservation — are now live and accepting participants.
Project Details
