Beavers to be released on National Trust land
The ongoing restoration of beavers to Britain will continue in 2020 with the release of three pairs into fenced enclosures on National Trust properties in Devon and Sussex.
Four beavers will go into two enclosures on Holnicote Estate, north Exmoor, where the trust believes they will help restore natural processes and complexity on local rivers.
“The dams the beavers create will hold water in dry periods, help to lessen flash-flooding downstream and reduce erosion and improve water quality by holding silt,” says Ben Eardley, project manager at Holnicote. Another pair will go to the Black Down estate on the edge of the South Downs in Sussex.
A spokesperson for the National Trust says this could just be the beginning: “We’re keen to see how these go, but if there are no issues, then we would consider other introductions.”
Beavers are increasingly being seen as a way to manage river systems in a more natural way, though most releases in England to date have been into enclosures – in recent years, these include ones in Devon, Cornwall, the
Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, and Essex, while Knepp Estate in Sussex is developing plans.
The only sanctioned wild beavers in England are on the River Otter in South Devon, and they were originally released without a licence.
In Scotland, there are free-living populations in both Knapdale on the west coast and in Tayside on the east. James Fair
FIND OUT MORE Beaver Advisory Committee for England: beaversinengland.com