University of Exeter research concludes beaver-made wetlands can help alleviate impacts of flood and drought Study of four wild beaver territories in Devon finds they store more than 24 million litres of water Pioneering scheme now paying landowners/farmers who make space for beavers and their wetlands.

Research led by the University of Exeter and Devon Wildlife Trust based on a ten-year study of wild-living beavers in Devon shows that the animals are having a positive impact on flood and drought alleviation.

Having been hunted to extinction 400 years ago, beavers returned to England’s countryside when a population was discovered to be living on East Devon’s River Otter in 2014. No one knows how or by whom the animals were reintroduced, but in 2020 the beavers were given the legal right to stay. The charity Devon Wildlife Trust monitors the animals and estimates that the industrious rodents are now living in 20 separate family territories along the river and its tributaries.

Beavers are known as ‘ecosystem engineers’ for their unusual ability to shape their surroundings to suit themselves. They build dams on streams and other watercourses to create pools and wetlands where they feel secure to feed and interact with one another.