Dam fine

Beavers will return to Sussex for the first time in 400 years as part of a trial in West Sussex

- Jenny Mark-Bell

Britain’s beaver population was lost more than 400 years ago, hunted to extinction for the fur trade. Now these helpful herbivores are being hailed as a valuable weapon in the fight against climate change.

Current legislation means that beavers can only be released in England into large enclosures under licence from the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra). As well as a wild colony living along the River Otter in Devon – believed to originate from escapees from a private collection – closely monitored beaver pairs are living in trial enclosures in North Yorkshire, Cornwall, Essex, Devon, Somerset and Gloucestershire. This year, beaver pairs will be returned to Cumbria, Norfolk and Dorset – and two sites in West Sussex. One is in Valewood, on the National Trust’s Black Down estate, and the other at the Knepp Estate near Horsham.

The Sussex Beaver Trial is a partnership led by Sussex Wildlife Trust and the rewilding project at Knepp. Landowners Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell have long been advocates of the potential for beavers to mitigate flooding and promote biodiversity. “We wanted wild boar, bison and beavers,” says Isabella, remembering the letter of intent they sent to the government in 2001, when they first planned to create a wilderness area on their land. Charlie felt so strongly about the importance of beavers’ role in restoring natural landscapes that he founded the Beaver Advisory Committee of England with the aim of fostering conversation between landowners and organisations such as the NFU, Environment Agency and Natural England. This work has now been taken on by the newly formed Beaver Trust.