[6-minute read]

The story so far.

The return of beavers has been carefully planned over a long period of time. The Wildlife Trust movement has been advocating for their reintroduction for many years, including pioneering work with the animals in 2015 when Devon Wildlife Trust established a trial project in the River Otter, which steadily established 30 separate beaver families in the river network.

In October 2022, following Wildlife Trust campaigning and overwhelming public support for reintroducing this keystone species, English law was changed to classify beavers as a native species.

Until the government’s announcement in February 2025, the beavers in Devon remained England’s only licensed wild beaver population. Elsewhere, Wildlife Trusts have supported landowners to build large enclosures to house beavers and test their return to Britain, including here in Suffolk.
 

Why does Suffolk Wildlife Trust support the return of beavers?

Beavers lived alongside us in Britain for thousands of years before we hunted them to extinction in the 1500s. They are natural water engineers and their disappearance from our ecosystems has had far reaching consequences such as increased impacts of flooding, increased river pollution, poorer water quality, and the overall health of our natural environment.

The return of beavers can help to:

• Reduce impacts of flooding by creating pools and canals that hold water and release it slowly back into rivers and lakes;
   
• Create wetland habitats that increase diversity and abundance of wildlife including amphibians, aquatic insects, fish, water voles, and wetland birds;
   
• Improve water quality: beaver dams trap act like a natural water filter, capturing silt and pollutants therefore creating cleaner water;
   
• Encourage wildlife tourism and increasing people’s appreciation for - and engagement with – the natural world.

The Government recently committed to spending billions of pounds on hard infrastructure to combat flooding as well as compensating farmers for lost crops due to changing weather patterns. In contrast, releasing beavers is an affordable, nature-based solution to flooding and many other problems our rivers and floodplains face.

Do beavers ever cause problems?

Yes, they can do, and it is important to recognise that not everyone in an area will benefit from the presence of beavers, and that those who benefit from beaver reintroduction may not always be the same people bearing the costs.

However overall, the evidence is overwhelming: the benefits that beavers provide outweighs the negatives. What is crucial is that those who are impacted are listened too and where appropriate, fully compensated and that is why we call for Beaver Management Groups to help understand where these impacts are and these are financially supported.

Beavers and trees:

Some people have concerns about the impact on trees. Whilst beavers can fell trees as part of their natural damming behaviour, they rarely move more than 10 metres from water so will only coppice or fell trees that are within this distance from a river. While they will occasionally cut larger trees, the majority of trees felled by beavers in the UK have been small: less than 10 cm in diameter.

The most favoured tree species of a beaver is willow; which grows back very quickly when cut. Where beavers might impact on trees situated near a waterway where the trees have commercial value (such as orchards) or sentimental value (such as in gardens), simple beaver-proof fencing can stop felling.
 

What is Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s approach?

We currently have no plans to reintroduce beavers onto any Suffolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve. However, as we explore the benefits of beavers for Suffolk, we hope to find opportunities in the wider landscape to support local groups, farmers and landowners to reintroduce beavers.

We believe targeted reintroduction projects should be encouraged where:

• There is an abundance of suitable habitat to ensure a healthy beaver population can establish and thrive;
   
• There are clear benefits to natural river and wetland hydrology and ecology from the presence of beavers;
   
• Natural recolonisation is likely to take a long time due to isolation from existing populations;
   
• There is a strong local ambition to lead a catchment-based Beaver Management Group. A local organisation could be a farmer cluster, a charity, or any other local group interested in beaver reintroduction.

This last point is vital. Beaver landscapes often need active management to help maximise the benefits and minimise potential problems. This should involve establishing a local Beaver Management Group that is adequately resourced and provides expert advice and support to help communities, landowners and businesses to live in harmony with beavers.

We believe the most effective way for communities and landowners to manage beavers in a local landscape is to:

• Take an evidence-based approach: ensure science and data are the key drivers for decision-making and problem-solving;
   
• Create a partnership and engage with local people: ongoing work with other stakeholders and community representatives to help increase understanding and normalise beaver activity;
   
• Provide clear incentives: financial incentives are crucial to help land managers earn a living whilst working alongside beavers and the wetlands they create, and the wealth of benefits provided for wildlife and society. We believe that access to financial support to make more space for water will eliminate the majority of potential conflicts. Payments for nature-based solutions are often the most cost effective and sustainable ways to solve the chronic problems of water quality, flood and drought.

How will Suffolk Wildlife Trust support beaver reintroduction?

The key word is ‘support’. We will look to support beaver reintroduction on a large scale in Suffolk where there are significant number of communities, farmers, and landowners within an area that want to explore the benefits of beavers.

In preparation, we are upskilling key members of staff in beaver ecology and management. We have already provided support to the one beaver enclosure in Suffolk and we will continue to do the same for wild, licensed releases.

More widely, we need to see sufficient advice, support, and funding earmarked by government to help facilitate beaver reintroduction locally and for Management Groups to manage the changes to their landscape. This will need to include long-term financial support for landowners living alongside beavers, allowing them to make space on their land for the river buffers, wetlands and streams that beavers will create: rewarding landowners who make space for nature on their land.