Wild Beaver Appeal
Nature has been pushed to the brink, but wild beavers can help turn things around. Beavers are incredible ecosystem engineers. They create wetlands which benefit wildlife, absorb carbon dioxide, reduce flooding, improve water quality. They’re our best hope for nature recovery along our streams and rivers.
Your gift will:
- Help release new beavers into the wild.
- Support health checks to ensure beavers are ready to live in the wild
- Enable ongoing monitoring of the impact of the presence of beavers.
- Support local communities to live alongside beavers.
Beaver Appeal video 2025 (https://youtu.be/w-p2et70g5k)
Meet Sue, and her family of builders.
Cornwall Wildlife Trust has the opportunity to release multiple pairs of beavers into the wild. We’ve identified suitable habitat, collected baseline data, engaged local stakeholders, and developed a management plan. The long-term vision is to achieve a self-sustaining and genetically diverse population of beavers in the Par and Fowey river catchments, with a focus on our complex of nature reserves around Helman Tor.
Your donation will help achieve a healthy, self-sustaining population of beavers living in Cornish rivers again, so we can all enjoy the benefits this native species will bring.
Gift aid on this appeal will go towards unrestricted funding to support our wider work.
Species helped by beavers
Just some of the species which evidence shows are supported by beaver-created wetlands:
Birds
Dragonflies and damselflies
Bats
Your questions answered
How much do you need to raise?
We estimate that this project will cost around £800,000 over ten years. St. Eval is generously funding £50,000 towards this. This public appeal hopes to raise £50,000 to support initial costs, including staffing, a vehicle, surveying and monitoring, beaver traps, and the beavers themselves.
The application process for the wild release licence requires us to show that suitable funds can be accessed to show a financial commitment to begin and sustain a wild release. While we have not yet received the licence, we are confident in the approach we have taken over the last two years in preparation, which has involved public consultations and following all guidance on best practice.
Are beavers living in the wild anywhere else?
Beavers have been reintroduced into 27 European countries, and are becoming more widely spread in the UK. Beavers are now living wild in Devon and, to a much lesser extent, in Cornwall.
This includes a licensed population on the River Otter (in Devon), as well as a population on the Tamar River and its tributaries. Since 2024 we have had a pair of beavers in the Par catchment, around our Helman Tor complex of nature reserves, that were released by an unknown third party. A well-planned release of multiple animals is needed to sustain a genetically healthy population of beavers in Cornwall.
Are there risks with introducing beavers?
We believe that any risks associated with beavers are far outweighed by the benefits. We are confident that in Cornwall we will be able to demonstrate how beavers can work for everyone.
For example, beavers may sometimes build dams, dig burrows, and coppice trees where we don't want them to. We are working with local landowners in advance to plan for their arrival and are putting measures in place where needed.
Natural England has developed a detailed licensing regime and application process to make sure that stakeholders are engaged and landowners are supported. We have been developing our wild release licence for the past two years. When this licence is approved, the project will support landowners and communities through the transition to living alongside beavers.
Is the project area suitable?
We know that our project area is suitable for the reintroduction of beaver, with lots of vegetation, slow flowing water, and pools of water.
Why do beavers build dams?
Beavers live in freshwater habitats, like rivers and streams, and prefer areas surrounded by wetland plants, trees and woodland. They are rather slow on land but excellent swimmers, so they feel safest when they’re close to deep water (around 70cm deep). If the water isn’t deep enough for them, beavers can make it deeper. They use mud, wood, and stones to build dams across shallow rivers, streams and ditches. The dams are leaky and let some water through, but slow down the flow enough for ponds to form, where the beavers can live and feel secure.
What has research from other reintroductions shown?
There is evidence to show that beavers have….
- Led to an increase of three times the diversity of pond and water plants
- Increased frogspawn abundance by over 6000%
- Increased bird species and abundance up to 100m away from beaver sites
- Increased bat activity by almost 400%
- Increased moth species diversity by 24%
- Led to an increase in dragonfly species by seven times