After an absence of four centuries – eight in Derbyshire – new beaver colonies have been established in several sites across the Midlands over the last five years. Working in partnership with local conservation organisations, the Beaver Trust has helped reintroduce Eurasian beavers into wildlife sanctuaries and woodland across the region. Beavers can now be found at:
- Boothby Wildland – Lincolnshire.
- Idle Valley Nature Reserve – Nottinghamshire.
- Trentham Gardens – Stoke-on-Trent
- Willington Wetlands – Derbyshire
Several of these sites have larger rewilding projects in hand and beavers are playing a vital role in reinstating natural landscape features that reinvigorate the surrounding countryside.
The Eurasian beaver, Europe’s largest rodent, is estimated to have lived in the UK for 30 million years. Many factors contributed to its decline and by the 12th century it was already extinct in Wales, followed by England and Scotland in the 16th century. Beavers were hunted relentlessly for their meat, fur and scent. Regarded as being rich in flavour, beaver meat was considered a delicacy, while its fur was prized to make fashionable waterproof hats, warm coats and mittens. Combined with creeping deforestation and urbanisation, the beaver eventually disappeared until campaigns started in the mid-1990s to return it to the UK.
Beavering away on rewilding
Rewilding is the active restoration and conservation of large areas of land that were previously farmed or developed in a way that disrupted or destroyed natural ecosystems. It often involves reverting rivers and streams back to their original courses, regrowing indigenous tree and plant species and reintroducing animals who used to populate the local landscape. Reclaiming natural land features and bringing back native species is increasingly believed to benefit the wider environment too, helping it build resilience to the effects of climate change and reverse lost biodiversity.
Beavers are referred to as “ecosystem engineers”: their characteristic dam-building creates new wetlands, as well as reduces flood-risk by slowing down waterflow in rivers and streams. They tirelessly coppice trees and shrubs, dam small waterways and dig their own mini-canal systems.
This helps adjacent land store more water, which in turn sustains other wildlife during periods of drought. Their absence led to the demise of myriad small water networks nationwide and consequently other plant and animal life suffered too. New beaver activity has quickly proven successful in developing natural communities, attracting otters, voles and waterbirds to their wetlands.
Environment protector or waterway pest?
While environmental and conservation groups have hailed the return of our flat-tailed friends and the contribution they are making to rewilding projects, they have not received a warm welcome from everyone. Farmers and landowners regularly voice concerns that while damming can prevent flooding downstream, it can actually cause localised flooding of agricultural land. Equally, as prodigious builders, beavers fell and strip trees, so that as colonies grow the damage to surrounding woodland can be considerable and farmers have to meet reparation costs themselves. Midlands’ fishing and angling groups also caution that damming disrupts fish migration for breeding, affecting trout and salmon in particular, whose numbers are already in decline.
Furthermore, because beavers have settled back in so well, there is a risk that booming colonies could become an issue, as there are few natural predators around to help regulate the population. Centuries ago, wolves and wild cats preyed on adult beavers, while otters, badgers and birds of prey hunted their kits (baby beavers). There are campaigns to reintroduce wolves, lynx and golden eagles into the UK, but they have met with resistance from farmers worried about wild animal attacks on livestock and are still under discussion.
License to thrive
All these factors make rural planning essential. There have been instances of beaver bombing, whereby beavers are released back into the wild privately, without being part of any formal program or managed scheme. In some ways, it shows the popularity of beaver reintroduction, as groups and individuals tire of waiting for official repopulation projects, but it can be problematic for landowners and existing colonies alike. Consequently, Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) started a beaver reintroduction license scheme in February 2025, to help balance existing colonies, protect landowners and regulate beaver activity.
For the most part, the return of beavers to UK waterways has been well-received and generated huge public interest. The new colonies are thriving and kits have been born in all four of the Midlands sites: Beaver Kits at Willington Wetlands. Nationally, there is increasing coverage of the positive impact beaver activity has had on the wider environment, especially over the hot summer of 2026, when new wetlands helped attract and support a wide range of wild animals and insects through several heatwaves. The Beaver Trust’s vision of “thriving waterways, where beavers are embraced as a vital part of our biodiverse landscape” is fast becoming a reality.
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