Reintroducing the British beaver

In order to bring back Britain’s lost rainforests and woodlands, we need to recreate the conditions that enabled these biomes to prosper in ancient times. The beaver, once abundant across the British mainland, was a keystone species in our woodland ecosystem until it was hunted to extinction in the mid-15th century. At Ecotalk, we’re putting plans in place to reintroduce the beaver at our Boyers Wood site and to benefit from everything these little eco engineers can do.

Although beavers feed on trees, shrubs and roots, they bring countless benefits and provide an enormous boost to biodiversity. Beavers dam up streams to create small ponds where they’ll then build a lodge to live in and raise their kits. Straight away, other mammals like water voles and otters can colonise the pond, along with a variety of waterfowl.

Beaver dams are also home to fish and amphibians, and studies have shown that trout and salmon populations benefit where beavers are active.

Above the surface, when a beaver fells a tree it creates a gap in the canopy. This helps bats to navigate more freely, and allows sunlight to reach new growth on the forest floor. Where beavers graze on shrubs, they grow back more densely giving better cover to a wide variety of birds.

Dragging wood into rivers, streams and ponds, beavers create habitats for plenty of aquatic invertebrates and add carbon to the water, making it more fertile for reeds and underwater plants. Their dams trap nutrients by preventing soil eroded from fields from being washed away into the rivers and out to sea.

Beavers can also play a key role in how we adapt to the climate crisis. Their natural engineering projects hold water in the landscape. This helps prevent flooding, decreases the possibility of wildfires and raises the water table, which helps farmers. It’s further proof that returning British nature to how it once was is one of the most effective ways of alleviating the effects of climate change.

At Boyers Wood, we’re excited about the idea of living alongside Europe’s largest rodent once again and watching them build a new patchwork of healthy little lakes, ponds and mires where countless other species can thrive.

Nobody imagines when they switch mobile phone operator that they can have this kind effect on the environment, but if you’re with Ecotalk then you really will be making a difference.

Fact file

Species: Eurasian beaver

Scientific name: Castor fiber

Length: 80 to 100cm

Weight: 11 to 30kg

Young: 2 to 6 kits

Territory: 3km of bank

Status: Protected (after being extinct for over 400 years)

To support projects that help species like the beaver recover in Britain, join Ecotalk. Find out more about our mobile, text and data packages on the Our Deals page of our site.