It’s time to unplug the dam for beavers

Matt Phelps | Lead Ecologist

As is becoming increasingly familiar in the depths of winter, recent news headlines have been dominated by the impacts of flooding: stranded school children, sodden homes and travel chaos. As our weather patterns change due to the effects of climate change, we will need to get smarter at combating flood risks. 

Alongside technological and structural adaptations, natural solutions are going to be key. Restoring floodplains, releasing rivers to meander as they once did, and planting trees and hedgerows to absorb more water are all proven to be effective. And so too are the presence of nature’s toothiest engineers: beavers. 

These charismatic creatures build complex wetlands which provide breeding, foraging and shelter for birds, bats, mammals and amphibians. Their dams capture water, and then slowly release it again through their innately leaky structures. This makes river systems more resilient to drought during dry spells, but also protects areas downstream from flooding after heavy rain by slowing the pace of the river flow. 

And yet, despite the advantages beavers bring, in England we find ourselves in a somewhat ludicrous position. 

Current legislative stagnation in England means that anyone interested in having beavers legally on their land – including here at Knepp – is limited to keeping them in enclosures. That’s despite the species being granted full protection and native status by the previous government in October 2022. 

So, later this year, we’re faced with the unenviable task of needing to catch the two-year-olds in our beaver pen to transport them to another enclosure somewhere else in the country. 

Left to their own devices, free roaming beavers would disperse at will in search of new territories. But in enclosures such as ours, the law means that we must intervene. 

Many other beaver managers are in the same boat. 

Never has the government stance on beavers seemed so out-of-touch. It is simply farcical that another two years have passed with no further progress, and we remain stalled in a situation where a native mammal is having to be carted around the country, from cage to cage, when there are countless areas where the species lives in wild freedom. 

The River Otter in Devon holds the only authorised free-living population of beavers in England, containing at least fifty beaver territories, following the government-approved River Otter Beaver Trial which ran from 2015 to 2020. Despite the myriad ecological and hydrological benefits, we remain unable to lawfully replicate such wild releases elsewhere. 

This has inevitably led to increasing frustration from many who are keen to see this state of uncertainty come to an end. Some have taken to direct action as a means of venting their frustrations, with an anonymous band of well-meaning but militant enthusiasts ‘beaver bombing’ (releasing without licence) the creatures into various river catchments across England. As a result of this, there are now thought to be several hundred of these animals living happily in the wild in various parts of England. 

Not far from Knepp, the Great Stour in East Kent was recently found by Natural England to contain at least 51 active beaver territories. I was in Canterbury last summer and spoke to a number of local people, many of whom were totally unaware that the beavers were even there. Similarly, beavers live wild on the Avon through the centre of Bath. You can see evidence of their presence as you enter the city by train. 

Other parts of Britain and Europe are leagues ahead in re-establishing the beaver at scale. In Scotland, enclosures were by-passed altogether as wild releases began in 2009. The species was finally granted full native species protection in 2016. 

Mainland Europe is even further down the line, with over 1.5 million beavers living wild across Eurasia, from an all-time low of just 1,200 in 1900, due to persecution from humans. 

Now, in Bavaria, some 25,000 beavers live freely on various rivers including the Danube and the Isar, following their reintroduction in 1966. This population represents a far higher beaver to person ratio than even the most densely populated beaver regions of Scotland. There are just 450 beavers in Scotland and 5.6 million people, compared to 12 million people in Bavaria. There are even beavers living within the grounds of Munich airport! This shining example of human/beaver co-existence is thanks to a comprehensive and pragmatic management strategy, which includes laws on land use and the protection of ‘buffer strips’ along rivers, prohibiting any farming activity within five metres of a watercourse. In addition, Bavaria has around a thousand beaver managers or consultants, responsible for liaising with farmers and landowners to provide advice and reduce potential conflicts. 

In our enclosure at Knepp we demonstrate simple but effective methods to protect particular trees, including a ring of galvanised stock netting around the base, or the application of a mixture of PVA glue and sharp sand. Beavers tend to take the easiest option when selecting trees for nibbling and will simply go elsewhere if the tree is protected in this way. This is especially important where trees of particular financial or sentimental value are close to watercourses; beavers generally don’t roam much further than twenty metres from water in search of food. 

We are within touching distance of successfully living alongside beavers across England. Many are leading the charge with great examples of the way forward. At the Spains Hall Estate in Essex, beavers have been released into two enclosures to help with flood mitigation, reducing the threat to the village of Finchingfield downstream. £60,000 worth of cricket bat willows are protected using the sand and glue method. What’s more, the trees are growing more vigorously as a result of the wetland creation the beavers have engineered. 

Devon Wildlife Trust now has its own in-house beaver conservation team who work with farmers and landowners to educate and advise on the best ways to live harmoniously alongside the species. The team helps people enjoy beavers’ ecosystem benefits while also offering solutions that are needed. A YouGov poll in 2019 revealed that over 80% of Britons were generally in favour of species reintroductions, with two thirds supporting the recovery of beavers, over a third keen to see the return of wild boar, wolves and lynx, and even just under a quarter welcoming the thought of the return of brown bears! 

Now more than ever we urgently need clarity from the government on this issue, as these enclosed populations continue to thrive and grow. We need a plan on what happens next and how beavers will be successfully and sensitively re-integrated into our landscapes. 

We know it is possible because we have it elsewhere. As is so often the case, we need the will and the vision to make it a reality. Perhaps soon, the environment secretary, Steve Reed, will make a positive announcement, and I will be writing something very different about the next step for England’s beavers, about how our fences will be allowed to come down and our beavers will be free to spread naturally, restoring habitats and natural flood defences along the River Adur as they go… 

Further reading: River Otter Beaver Trial – Science and Evidence Report.pdf

Homepage – Beaver Trust

NECR559 Edition 1 Assessment of wild living beaver populations in East Kent – NECR559

Beavers in Scotland – A Report to the Scottish Government

Bavarian Beaver Adventure: A Tale of Coexistence and Conservation – Citizen Zoo