LAST week, on the Dorset coast, four beavers were released from their crates and disappeared under the surface of a lake called Little Sea. The first beavers to be (legally!) released in England for the first time in over 400 years.

Eurasian beavers were once native and widespread in Britain, including Cornwall. Extinct after being hunted for their fur, meat and scent oil, in the last twenty years they've been making a comeback, returning to our waterways via licensed releases into enclosures.

The plight of the beaver has been something that I've followed for some time, after meeting Cornish Pioneer Chris Jones and learning about his project to reintroduce beavers at Woodland Valley Farm in Ladock back in 2017. They're amazing creatures and their natural habitat could change our environment for the better. The Cornwall Wildlife Trust have been doing an incredible project doing cutting edge work on flood prevention. I've seen a dam at Woodland Valley Farm, built by beavers, and they're real architectural feats. If you’ve not been to visit, I would thoroughly recommend it, especially parents and students. It really is an amazing place. And now there could be more of them.

Since 2021, the Scottish government has allowed the movement and release of beavers around Scotland. The tartan beaver population is now estimated at 1,500. England is catching up. Back in 2008, beavers were illegally released on the River Otter in Devon. Between 2015 and 2020 they were observed by experts and found to have made a positive impact on the environment. Natural England then began drawing up plans to allow the wild release of beavers across England — and now we have that first release in Dorset.

Why is this good news? As well as nature’s engineers, beavers are the original eco-warriors. They reduce flood risk, create new wetlands where rich wildlife flourish, and boost biodiversity. Beavers also filter out pollutants; improving the water quality of our rivers, dams, ponds and canals. And their dams not only mitigate flooding and prevent drought but hold back silt that locks up carbon too.

Wild beaver populations will require the development of a long-term management plan, which will need to happen. The release of beavers back into the country will come with support for conservationists, farmers and landowners. Every wild release project will need to set out a 10-year plan to show where and how they would have an impact on the landscape before Natural England would even consider granting a licence.

Knowing that beavers are re-entering our waterways may seem a trivial matter to many but it's a real win for the environment and if the reintroduction is managed in the right way beavers will do the rest. Beavers have been exiled from the country's landscapes for over 400 years. This is a considered approach for this amazing creature's planned return. It's a real success story for nature recovery in England and one that we should celebrate.