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Perhaps it is C.S Lewis' fault creating a world in which beavers eat fish or the bonkers idea that beavers cause floods (quite the contrary), regardless of peoples misjudgements we are going to help change the public perception of these remarkable creatures.

Beavers have an innate skill set to control the flow of water and completely transform their surroundings, a beaver wetland evolves in a natural cycle of harvesting and growth where they utilise their surroundings and when a space has run its course they move up river. The benefits of  beaver wetlands to other species is far too enormous to fit into a blog and there are many books that would do it better justice than this I so i will leave it at the fact that they are keystone species which means an organism that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its population size.

Beavers were still present in the uk until the 16th century when they were hunted to extinction for their fur, meat and castoreum, it can be hard to imagine how different our countryside would have looked with these rodents performing their duties but when you observe their work you start to realise how anthropocentric the land around us has become. Historically, our countryside would have been a far wetter place of bogs, fens and floodplains. Around 40% of all plants and animals on earth live and breed in wetlands to further state their importance. However humans have drained the land as far back as 9000 years ago to harness the fertility in wet land, and since the 17th century we have systematically engineered farmland into square fields and further implemented countless clay drainage pipes which lead to ditches to carry the water away as fast as possible. Beside our will to forget beavers in our landscape, they are now making a return and are found in multiple locations, both wild and captive across the country. There are an estimated 3500 to 4000 beavers in the uk at present and with the addition of wild release licences being granted as of 2025, the future looks very hopeful.

A few beaver facts: 

• Beavers are entirely herbivorous and eat the bark, twigs and foliage of trees, shrubs and aquatic plants.

• They are most at home in the water and have two layers of fur to trap air and stay warm in freezing temperatures, among other physiological adaptations.

• A beaver wetland can store 12x more carbon than a dry meadow.

• Beavers have orange teeth due to the high iron content needed for chewing wood.

• Castoreum ( a gland secretion) has been traditionally used in perfumes and food flavouring as it supposedly has a vanilla scent.

The sheer value of these creatures cannot be understated when it comes to how they will make our future brighter. A beaver wetland acts as a natural filter, decreasing pollutants and contaminants. They have even been found to contain denitrifying bacteria due to the cellulose rich, low oxygen mud causing the bacteria to feed on the artificial nitrates that are often found in our rivers from synthetic fertiliser field run off. When beavers build dams and slow the water, not only is the water pooled across a floodplain, it is forced underground into the soil and aquifers. This benefits the waterways by filtering and cooling the water where it is stored and released in times of drought to maintain constant flow and a healthy ecosystem for the other river inhabitants. 

Where i live in the Teign valley in Devon we are fairly close to wild beaver populations in the Otter catchment, these are most likely the result of illegal releases/escapes. The way in which beavers have become present again in England is a combination of campaigning effort and an avoidance of red tape but for the time being it seems to be working. I started my conservation career at Ewhurst park where the first beavers in Hampshire for 400 years were released into a captive breeding enclosure, multiple generations of kits have been born since and some have gone on to licensed wild releases in Cornwall. In a few years beavers have become something that was only seen on an american tv documentary to something that is a ever present in my daily life. I have been lucky enough to work on a project on the river Otter to create a more beaver friendly water way with the West Country Rivers Trust and a previous contracting company, this showed that action is occurring and the rewards were instant, when the day after i had coppiced a long over due alder stand around a pond there was a beaver swimming the water feeding on the brash that had been felled. Yes the beavers would have performed that task in time left to their own devices, however there is always a human element to be considered when welcoming beavers back into the landscape. where the pond was also a garden feature and aesthetics and safety have to be considered. Did you know beavers generally gnaw partially way through a large tree and let the wind blow it over while they are clear. 

There are some places where it would not be sensible to welcome beavers back into human civilisation, where human made beaver imitation dams will have to suffice, but there are a lot of places where they could. Working with nature to solve current issues is a far better option than working against it. When the landscape and nature has evolved with these animals and because of them for the last 30 million years I think I makes far more sense to trust in their abilities. I would highly recommend visiting a beaver residence and be astounded at their craft and maybe tell a friend the odd beaver fact, so gradually they may become a regular occurrence for future generations to see.