Beavers

 The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northants have an appeal to bring back beavers!  Find out more 

The US is bringing back nature's best firefighters: beavers   Find out more

 

The 7th April is International Beaver Day and as such a chance to raise awareness of the wonders of beavers, how important they are to biodiversity and the health of our planet, and organisations which are involved in beavers. 

What are the benefits of beavers?

Beavers are a keystone species- they hold habitat together and have a disproportion impact on it, and without them, the habitat would be very different indeed or it might even disappear.  Beavers are known as eco-system engineers for their abilities – the UK’s Beaver Trust says they instinctively know what to do.  In short, the Trust says that “Beavers breathe life back into our waters”. 

Beavers at work: only humans and elephants have a greater impact on life around them 

9 ways beavers help biodiversity...

  1. Feeding and tree felling helps more light get to the ground - the beavers do their own form of coppice management, if you like
  2. More deadwood on land and in the water from beavers foraging away can be a valuable habitat for fungi, beetles and vertebrates, who are in turn valuable food sources for birds, fish and amphibians 
  3. Beaver dams and ponds filter out pollutants so they help clean water
  4. The channels and wetland habitats and dams that they create hold water back – and release it more slowly after a bout of heavy rain which prevents flooding further downstream.   They slow the flow! 
  5. The dams can help create more wetland behind them, essential habitat for species such as birds, bats and mammals
  6. Their ponds hold water, very useful for periods of drought for wildlife and also for people, including farmers
  7. Beaver ponds provide nurseries for fish, amphibians and invertebrates and homes for fish and wildlife.  Clearings fill with wild flowers, attracting insects and birds
  8. Beaver ponds and wetlands can act as firebreaks and also a place of safety for wildlife during wild fires.  

    Scientists use beavers to create drought and fire-resistant landscapes

  9. They can help keep rivers and streams wet all year with the dams and ponds they create, and this dan be invaluable in times of drought



Organisations working to help beavers include:

  • Beaver Trust in the UK and it is a nature restoration charity working to bring beavers back to Britain and to make space for nature.  It finds ways to make space for beavers and their wetlands and to help stakeholders to live alongside beavers and wetlands.
  • The Wildlife Trusts have a number of beaver projects and you can see a list of them and find out more her
  • Rewilding Britain say the Eurasian beaver is “Nature’s busy aquatic architect is a formidable tree feller, river changer and wetland creator”

Wild beavers discovered at Helman Tor nature reserve (March 2024)

More information:

As drought dries up B.C. rivers, conservationists turn to beavers for help (Oct 2023)

How to Bring Wilderness Back to Britain, Rewilding UK

 

Talk about beavering away....   Rescue beaver makes Christmas dam in house