In Devon, Kent, Scotland and other areas of the UK, Wildlife Trusts have been leading the way in bringing beavers back, showing how they can create thriving ecosystems and help us to put nature firmly back on the road to recovery.  

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust would love to see beavers playing their part in creating a wilder future for our two counties and we are actively looking into the possibility of introducing them to the Eastern Yar, at our Newchurch Moors nature reserve.  But we need Government to back beavers and we are calling for a beaver strategy, as a part of a greener recovery plan for England.

We have the evidence and expertise:

There is an impressive and ever-growing body of independent scientific evidence showing the incredible benefits that beavers can bring to society by working with nature. These include:

• Improved water quality: Beaver dams slow and filter water, causing sediment and nutrients to be deposited in ponds. This improves the quality of water flowing from sites where beavers are present.
• Land holds more water: The dams, ponds and channels created by beavers increase capacity of land to store water and produce a more consistent outflow below their dams. This can result in less water being released during heavy rainfall (reducing flooding downstream) and more water availability during times of drought.
• Carbon is captured: Beaver wetlands capture carbon, locked up in dams, and boggy vegetation and wet woodlands which are restored.
• More wildlife: Beavers create diverse wetland habitats that can provide a home for a wide range of wildlife, especially aquatic invertebrates which act as a food source for other species.
• People engaged with wildlife: People are fascinated by beavers. The presence of beavers in an area provides an opportunity for people to engage with wildlife, as well as creating a market for nature tourism.

By working alongside farmers, landowners, river users and local communities,  Wildlife Trusts have learnt that management is essential if we are to maximise the benefits that beavers provide.  We now have a range of carefully honed techniques which can help us do this, which help avoid or minimise any localised negative impacts which might occur. We have gained widespread support for our recommended approaches in Scotland and Devon.

We are also calling on government to provide farmers and landowners with financial support to make space for water and beavers on their land. This will reward those who give up some of their land to benefit communities downstream, which will benefit from lower flood or drought risk and higher water quality.

Craig Bennett, CEO of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “Beavers are proving just what a valuable force they can be in helping to solve the nature and climate crises. Their extraordinary ability to naturalise landscapes, improving them for other wildlife, enhancing water quality and controlling water flow makes them a vital component of a modern approach to land management.  People love beavers and their presence has really boosted tourism in the places where they’ve been reintroduced.

“Now it is time to look forward and set out an ambitious vision for the return of these animals.  But this must be done properly and thoughtfully, with the right support systems in place.   That’s why it is so important that the government publishes its beaver strategy soon.”   

Martin De Retuerto, Director of Projects and Services at Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, said: “This is an incredibly exciting time for bringing beavers back where they belong.  Having visited some of the fantastic projects being led by Wildlife trusts in other parts of the country, I have been inspired by the ability of these unassuming river rodents to breathe life back into barren, broken ecosystems.  Working with the team of experts at the University of Exeter, we are now pushing forward our plans to bring beavers to the Island, as a vital part of our vision for a wilder Wight.  We look forward to a positive response from government to help us achieve this aim.”

Professor Richard Brazier,  University of Exeter, said: “The habitat present on the Isle of Wight demonstrates great potential for the reintroduction of beavers, with very few obvious areas of conflict where beavers would be problematic. There is also significant scope for habitat enhancement using beavers, which would deliver a range of benefits or ecosystem services including flood reduction, water quality improvements, water storage and drought alleviation alongside the more obvious positive to all wildlife that thrives when water is brought back to our ecosystems.”

The Wildlife Trusts are gathering public support for an England beaver strategy. 

You can add your voice here

Editor’s Notes

More about beavers: www.wildlifetrusts.org/saving-species/beavers

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust 

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust strives to create a better future for wildlife and wild places in our two counties. With the support of our 25,000 members we’re taking effective action to protect our natural heritage. We’re also part of a UK‐wide partnership of 46 Wildlife Trusts; together we are the nation’s most active and influential nature conservation partnership protecting wildlife in every part of the UK. Discover wildlife on your doorstep with your Wildlife Trust by visiting www.hiwwt.org.uk  

Letter from The Wildlife Trusts to the Secretary of State, 7^th May 2020

The Rt Hon George Eustice MP
Secretary of State
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
2 Marsham Street
London, SW1P 4DF

7^th May 2020

Dear Secretary of State,

RE: Beaver reintroduction in England

We are writing to express our concern that the Government’s decision on the future of beavers in England is not delayed and that licenced reintroductions are allowed to continue.

Beavers are nature’s aquatic engineers.  They have the unique ability to change riverine habitats, impounding water, slowing the flow and diversifying habitat around river courses.  England’s wetlands and their wildlife coevolved with beavers over millennia and their absence has had profound negative impacts. The behaviour of these formerly native and widespread animals is often misunderstood.  Their impacts in less agriculturally productive landscapes often go unnoticed or are focussed in smaller headwater streams.  Elsewhere, low cost interventions maximise the overwhelming environmental and economic benefits to society and avoid unnecessary negative impacts. 

The Wildlife Trusts have a great deal of experience and expertise with beavers, built up over the past two decades, with projects being successfully run in Kent, Scotland, Devon, Cornwall, and numerous other locations. Other Wildlife Trusts are also planning reintroduction projects, such as Derbyshire, who are in advanced planning stages, and Hampshire & Isle of Wight, who have commissioned a feasibility study for reintroductions on the Island. The five-year licenced reintroductions into the wild in Scotland and Devon, the only two to date in Britain, were both led or co-led by local Wildlife Trusts. The Scottish Beaver Trial, (led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland), which marked the first time a mammal had officially been reintroduced to Britain, led to beavers being granted European Protected Species Status in Scotland on 1^st May last year.  In all these cases, we have pushed for management plans with partners and built strong partnership consensus, including with landowners, local businesses, fishing organisations, statutory agencies, leading academic institutions, and others.

The body of independent scientific evidence reveals the vast array of benefits that beavers can bring to society by working with and catalysing natural processes. These include flood alleviation by slowing flows through networks of ‘leaky’ dams; water quality by stripping out harmful pollution; and carbon sequestration as dams lock in organic carbon.  Beavers also create thriving ecosystems that benefit many other species. 

In March 2020, the five-year River Otter Beaver Trial, led by Devon Wildlife Trust, produced its final science and evidence report, a copy of which can be found here.  This is high quality, independent scientific work by leading internationally recognised experts.  There have been a small number of claims made from some individuals and organisations that beavers damage fisheries or cause other problems.  While we would welcome further research in this field, these claims have not been substantiated by scientific evidence.

Support for beavers among local communities in all the Wildlife Trust led beaver projects has been very strong, and media interest has been intense.  Schools have found the beavers particularly engaging, and local businesses on the river Otter have reported benefitting from greater visitor numbers.  There is good evidence to suggest that the more direct experience people have with beavers the more supportive they are.  In Devon, all sections of the population, including farming and fishing groups, showed higher levels of support at the end of the Trial than at the start. 

The experience of the wild licenced releases in Scotland and Devon show that managing the impact of beavers on the landscape is crucial and needs to be fully integrated into reintroduction programmes from the outset.  There have been few reported problems raised by landowners in either of these trials because of the resources provided in advice, awareness, and mitigation. Wherever issues have arisen, such as a flooded area of crop, problems were successfully resolved. Considerable time was invested with stakeholders, with Defra support, to agree a Beaver Management Strategy Framework following the Devon Trial, and a copy of which can be found here.

In contrast, where populations of beavers have appeared without stakeholder engagement being undertaken or mitigation support in place, for example the initial years of beavers on the river Tay in Scotland, problems have been harder to resolve.  We understand that the intention was for Natural England to publish a beaver strategy in April.  This would have provided a framework for deciding on future beaver releases and management strategies. Clearly Covid-19 has changed things.  A decision on whether beavers can remain on the river Otter, and by implication spread to other catchments, has been deferred until August.  We have not heard about the amended timetable to launching the beaver strategy.  It is extremely important that the beaver strategy is launched this year and that the decision on the river Otter beavers is not subject to any further delay for a number of reasons.

First, it is crucial to clarify the legal status, licensing system and management regime for beavers.  Until it is clarified, there is a real risk to beavers in the wild and an equal risk that any problems that might be caused cannot be dealt with adequately.  Experience of other parts of Europe, such as Bavaria, show that maximising these animals’ many positive impacts and minimising any potential problems relies on a clear licencing systems and management framework, with quick decision making.  Any delay will work against that. 

Secondly, beaver projects require staffing and funding.  The Trials in Devon and Scotland have been successful because there have been officers on the ground liaising with local stakeholders, providing advice and monitoring, and dealing with any potential problems.   Many other projects in the pipeline have secured significant funding and built essential partnership support.  Any delay could put these funds and hard-won partnerships at risk, wasting a huge amount of resources and causing a great deal of resentment, bad publicity, and financial loss. 

Thirdly, it should be noted that beaver populations are increasing year on year, and as well as the licenced populations already noted there are also numerous unlicensed wild populations in various parts of Britain.  Delaying decisions will not make managing these populations easier.  An effective and responsible approach to beavers, and maximising their many benefits, requires clear and timely decision making.

At the point at which the Covid-19 pandemic hit Britain, support for the natural environment was higher than at any time in recent history. Recent polling suggests that it is still among the issues of highest concern among the British public, even if immediate focus has shifted to the health crisis.  Reintroducing the beaver has captured the public’s imagination, and the evidence that these animals will bring real and measurable benefits is overwhelming. The significant climate, environmental and monetary benefits to local economies and communities mean that they could be a crucial part in delivering a green recovery and the 25 Year Environment Plan.

Setting a clear direction by launching the beaver strategy and taking a clear decision on the beavers in the river Otter would be a real statement of the Government’s intention to stay true to its promise for this generation to be the first to leave the natural environment in a better state than we found it.

We look forward to your response, and we would be delighted to meet you in Westminster or on site at one of the beaver projects to discuss this further.

Yours sincerely,

Craig Bennett, CEO, The Wildlife Trusts
Debbie Tann, CEO, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
Estelle Bailey, CEO, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust
Brian Bleese, CEO, Dorset Wildlife Trust
Carolyn Cadman, CEO, Cornwall Wildlife Trust
Stephen Trotter, CEO, Cumbria Wildlife Trust
Jo Smith, CEO, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust
Harry Barton, CEO, Devon Wildlife Trust
Helen Stace, CEO, Herefordshire Wildlife Trust
Evan Bowen-Jones, CEO, Kent Wildlife Trust
Mike Pratt, CEO, Northumberland Wildlife Trust
Paul Wilkinson, CEO, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust
Colin Preston, CEO, Shropshire Wildlife Trust                                                              
Georgia Stokes, CEO, Somerset Wildlife Trust
Julian Woolford, CEO, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
Tor Lawrence, CEO, Sussex Wildlife Trust