The recent government announcement by DEFRA that wild releases of free-living beavers will be permitted in England is a wonderful bit of much needed good news at a time when we face many pressing environmental issues. It is a very positive and significant step forward - not just for beavers, but for nature and its recovery in this country more broadly.

This change in policy officially allows for the reintroduction of this keystone species to the wild, ushering in the wider return of part of our fauna that has been missing from our landscape for over four centuries. The return of the beaver is a major conservation milestone, comprising the return of the first ever extinct mammal species. Licenses for wild releases will be issued by Natural England.

Until now, any “reintroduction” of beavers in England was only permitted if it took place into a fenced enclosure, in which the beavers would be contained. This obviously places a major cap on the potential benefits they can bring to the wider landscape, and in time would also result in genetic bottlenecking, with fragmented populations of beavers cut off from each other.

This shift in governmental policy allows for the possibility of the wider return of beavers to the English landscape, following in the footsteps of Scotland. This announcement and the change in policy it reflects is the result of a huge amount of work by many different people over the years. A special shout out must go out to committed beaver believer and reintroduction specialist Derek Gow, who was a pioneer when it came to championing the beaver, bringing the first animals to Britain from Poland.

Derek Gow talking at 42 Acres

The role of beaver bombing in seeding progress

While this change in policy will allow for the official release of free-living beavers into the wild, there is already an unlicensed and expanding population of over 500 wild beavers in England, with one of the first such populations of these spotted on the River Otter in Devon. Initially, when beavers were discovered on the river, DEFRA intended to remove the animals. This resulted in a public outcry, and a rigorous five-year study was hatched to monitor the beavers and their impacts, undertaken by Devon Wildlife Trust and the University of Exeter. Despite hailing from an unsanctioned release, the results of this study demonstrated that the benefits of beavers far outweighed their negative impacts, which could be managed.

It is important to acknowledge the contribution of this study of these free-living beavers and their impacts to the recent change in policy. While research on beavers in enclosures has revealed very valuable information, without this unlicensed, free-living beaver population likely seeded by ‘beaver bombing’, it is very doubtful we would be where we are today.

A similar trajectory has played out in Scotland, and elsewhere in Europe as a result of such unlicensed releases. In Scotland, beavers were officially released to Knapdale Forest in Argyll, to a site in which the geology of the area would contain the beavers (a measure to placate landowners). However an unlicensed population of beavers appeared on the River Tay, Scotland’s largest river. The expanding beaver population on the Tay in some sense forced the Scottish government's hand, helping usher in a change in the law and policy, eventually allowing for the relocation of free-living beavers within Scotland - some of these even supplementing the genetically isolated population in Knapdale.

Beaver eco-engineering as flood defences and pollution filters

This announcement follows in the wake of a flurry of recent positive beaver-related headlines. One news story that has been making waves highlighted how a group of eight beavers saved authorities in the Czech Republic an estimated $1.2 million. After years of bureaucratic dilly dallying centered on constructing a dam to address flooding issues, beavers got the job done, for free. This isn’t an isolated case either. Flooding was an issue in the Bavarian town of Winzer, and a 1 million Euro dam was being proposed when beavers moved in upstream of the town. The dams they constructed slowed the water so effectively that only modest human-engineered flood protection was required, saving the town 650,000 Euros. Even the Environment Agency now recognises the flood mitigating potential of beavers, as showcased by their inclusion in a recent publication of an updated directory on the benefits of nature-based solutions for mitigating flooding.

There has also been recent coverage of research adding to the growing evidence base showcasing the effectiveness of beaver eco-engineering in buffering waterways from pollution. Some new research conducted at Bamff estate in Perthshire by the University of Stirling reported beaver ponds act as traps for silt and microbial pollutants, reducing pollutant peaks by 95%. This follows in the wake of some more fresh research examining the impact of beavers on the headwaters of a chalk stream. It was found that levels of agricultural nutrient pollutants in the form of nitrate and phosphate were significantly reduced, mitigating eutrophication risk. This bodes well for chalk streams in England, which are a globally rare and ecologically important aquatic ecosystem, found almost exclusively in south and eastern England. Agricultural pollution poses a major threat to them and to other waterways in Britain, and these recent studies build on previous research demonstrating that beaver eco-engineering can help effectively buffer aquatic ecosystems from agricultural pollution.

Beaver art by ATM

Biodiversity boosters

The growing evidence base for beaver eco-engineering in mitigating flooding (and buffering against droughts) and filtering pollution in waterways might be grounds enough for their return to the wider landscape, without even considering their amazing effects on biodiversity. Beavers create messy, varied, dynamic habitats through their eco-engineering activities. While this may go against our prim and proper “Keep Britain Tidy” ethos, this variation and messy dynamism creates a lot more opportunities for other forms of life than there may otherwise be. This is why beavers are considered to be keystone species. The wetlands they create are richer than any humans can replicate, and they have an unrivalled ability to rapidly breathe life back into degraded and depleted landscapes.

Many different forms of life benefit from beavers and their activities. Amphibians such as frogs relish the spawning opportunities provided by beaver ponds. Birds appreciate the messy mosaic of habitat they create. Dragonflies thrive in the varied wetland habitats they sculpt, and bats benefit from the availability of deadwood and insects. Fish can survive in the pools behind beaver dams during summer droughts when water is scarce. Beavers create what is now a very rare habitat in Britain through their ecological sculpting - wet woodland. This in turn creates opportunities for a distinct assemblage of species.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdkZH3uM1BI&t=6s

Mental health benefits of beavers

To wander in a beaver engineered landscape can feel like going back in time, to a more ancient and primeval landscape less sculpted by the human hand. Could it be that being able to encounter little pockets of wilderness, not managed by humans could be soul enriching?

The UK is considered one of the most nature-depleted parts of the world, and we are also a deeply nature disconnected island, with one recent study reporting that the UK rated 59th out of 65 surveyed nations for average nature connectedness. These two things speak of a broken relationship with nature, and they are likely interwoven. Beavers are - to me - a source of hope when considering these issues. Through their ability to enhance all manner of biodiversity at landscape scale, in addition to the overall abundance of many forms of life - they punch well above their weight when it comes to addressing the scale of nature depletion in our wider landscape.

Our connection to nature is built on sensory contact with nature - the life-rich landscapes that beavers sculpt exhibit a richer sensorial tapestry, and in so doing provide more opportunities for us to connect with nature. This connection to nature is vital for our wellbeing, and is also tied to pro-nature behaviours, and our inclination to act as stewards on behalf of the natural world, safeguarding it. The complex, biodiverse landscapes they create are also more supportive of mental health benefits following contact with such environments. Now that reintroductions of free-living beavers to the wild have been given the greenlight in England, this means beavers will in time hopefully be able to achieve this at scale over much of the country.

Beavers may even have a role in helping push back against shifting baseline syndrome, or ‘environmental generational amnesia’, where generational or personal forgetting results in people’s perceptions of biodiversity loss or environmental degradation being out of kilter with actual loss. This means subsequent generations are likely to accept an ever more diminished environment as the new normal, with people’s accepted thresholds for environmental conditions being lowered over time without them realizing it. By enhancing the diversity and abundance of life at landscape level, and potentially acting as ambassador animals and igniting a wider interest in nature, beavers could play a role in ‘lifting baselines’.

Living alongside beavers

Learning to live alongside beavers again will take some adjustment. But we don’t have to go into this blindly. Lessons have already been learned - such as in Bavaria, which has a half century head start on reintroducing beavers - and these can be applied here. Bavaria established a state-wide beaver management plan, employing regional beaver officers who work with local volunteers. One key thing to have emerged from the Bavarian management strategy - also echoed by the experience of communities living alongside wild beavers around the River Otter in Devon - is the importance of having someone at the end of the phone any time advice or assistance might be needed.

Cherished trees can be protected by sand or latex imbued paint, or via wire wrapping. Flow devices can be applied where water levels need to be controlled, but in a manner that allows both humans and beavers to co-exist. Options such as these have been found to be cost effective. Simply allowing a little space for beavers can markedly reduce human–beaver conflicts.

Gerhard Schwab and Ecohustler editor - Matt Mellen

According to Bavarian beaver management expert, Gerhard Schwab:

“If you give the river 20 metres breathing space, you will have solved 95% of beaver problems”.

Not only would leaving buffer strips along waterways help markedly reduce human-beaver conflicts, but it would buffer these habitats from pollution (adding to beaver’s ability in this regard), enhance biodiversity and provide corridors of interconnected habitat which would be a boon for wildlife in our fragmented and homogenised landscape, and also help improve the ecological status of rivers by by providing space for riparian vegetation. Potentially, a network of interconnected public footpaths could be established in these areas which could allow for more public contact with nature, with all the benefits to mental health and well-being this could promote.

The benefits of living alongside beavers in terms of the sum total ecosystem services they provide will far exceed the costs of managing them and their impacts. That being said, those who benefit from beavers will often differ from those who bear the brunt of their impacts, and these people will need support, both practical and financial. None of the issues beavers pose are insurmountable, and the benefits they provide are important and numerous.

The promise of beavers returning to our landscapes should be a source of hope, that we may one day inhabit a wilder and richer landscape alongside them.