🎉 The 28 February 2025 marks a historic day for nature recovery in England: the Government has announced its commitment to reintroducing beavers into the wild, moving beyond the previous system of release into enclosures (Natural England 2025).

Beavers are nature’s engineers, creating wetland habitats that support countless other species.  Their instinctive dam-building helps tackle the impacts of climate change by creating wetlands that retain water during floods and droughts, benefiting both nature and people.  

Hunted to extinction on mainland Britain for their fur, meat, and scent glands, beavers are now set to play a crucial role in ecosystem restoration. And for the first time since the 16th Century, these extraordinary creatures will be able to legally roam freely across England!

It is also worth to mention that earlier this year the Environment Agency's guide to Natural Flood Management (NFM) was updated to include beavers among their 17 recommended measures that can protect, restore and emulate the natural functions of rivers, floodplains and the coast to reduce flooding and coastal erosion.

The NFM directory is a widely used and practical guide to flood management, determined through a significant scientific evidence base, which comprises over 700 papers, and the EA now confirms there is sufficient evidence to support beavers’ inclusion.

Beaver engineering activity includes the creation of dams, ponds, canals and coppicing, creating diverse, unique wetlands. Their benefits are many, but critically in the NFM directory include reduction in peak flows, sediment reduction, floodplain reconnection and spreading and storing water in the landscape resulting in groundwater recharge.

So with NFM measures being recommended for use alongside continued human-engineered defences, we MUST celebrate the addition and recognition of this ecosystem engineer to our flood defence workforce! 🦫

 Species such as beavers can have a critical impact in aiding nature’s recovery.  In a relatively short space of time, they can create waterscapes brim-full of nature – work which would otherwise take years of costly human intervention.

(Harry Bowell, Director of Land and Nature at the National Trust)

Resources: 

Government Announcement: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wild-release-and-management-of-beavers-in-england 

Natural England, 2025. Beaver Wild Release: A Milestone for Nature Recovery in England: https://naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2025/02/28/beaver-wild-release-a-milestone-for-nature-recovery-in-england/

NFM directory: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-flood-management-evidence/river-and-floodplain-management#beavers 

More resources are also available on the Beaver Trust website.

🦫 Book recommendation 👉 Bringing Back the Beaver by Derek Gow, an inspirational firsthand account of how the movement to rewild the British landscape with beavers has become the single most dramatic and subversive nature conservation act of the modern era.