I’ll never forget the presentation Derek Gow gave to our board in 2012. There was huge excitement in the room discussing such bold and ambitious ideas. Derek is a farmer, author, and all-round expert in the reintroduction of keystone species, and approached us to seek our support in reintroducing beavers to Cornwall.

It was understanding the possibilities of what beavers’ activities could do for wildlife that made me realise this was something Cornwall Wildlife Trust needed to be involved in. After years of reading gloomy statistics about habitat loss and species decline in Cornwall, it was becoming clear we needed bolder approaches if we were going to make a real difference – and I was becoming convinced that beavers could do exactly that. The board agreed and decided Cornwall Wildlife Trust should become involved in the reintroduction of beavers!

Chris was absolutely right: they were enjoying their new home. They started building their first dam after only two nights – and it wasn’t long until we witnessed the first beaver lodge being built in Cornwall for hundreds of years.

Alongside this, a smaller lodge appeared on site earlier in the year which initially caused confusion. However, it was soon realised this was the male beaver building a temporary bachelor pad, as he had likely been asked to leave the lodge while the female was nursing. Less than a year after their release, Chewy and Willow’s kits were the first beavers to be born in Cornwall for over 400 years.

From day one we knew that monitoring would be vital in understanding the impact of the presence of beavers on wildlife. We conducted baseline surveys, and over the years that followed researchers, wildlife recorders, and scientists (including from the University of Exeter) recorded dramatic changes on the site. By the fifth anniversary of the Cornwall Beaver Project in June 2022, the landscape at Woodland Valley Farm was completely unrecognisable from its initial state. The beavers had breathed new life into their habitat and their natural dam-building behaviour had delivered huge benefits for both wildlife and people.

Researched showed that the new beaver-created wetlands had led to significant improvements in biodiversity, including three additional species of mammal, 10 new bird species, 11 species of bat and 17 species of damselfly and dragonfly being recorded on the site.

We’d done the research with an enclosure and the effects were mirrored in other beaver research across Europe. Now it was time to go large.

Around the time of this fifth anniversary, we purchased more land to expand our largest nature reserve, Helman Tor, by almost 100 acres. The increased size opened up exciting new management possibilities, making it the obvious place to focus our plans for a wild release of beavers. Our members and funders were incredibly generous in supporting this new land acquisition, and it felt like a strong endorsement of the plans we’d shared to rewild the site.

In April 2023, we were thrilled to announce a three-year partnership with St Eval to appoint a Beaver Officer to work on the first ever licensed wild release of beavers in Cornwall. Thanks to St Eval’s support, our Beaver Officer, Lauren, began working with us that summer to consult local people, collect baseline data, and pull together all the information needed for a licence application.

And it was a good job we had Lauren in the role doing this work. In February 2024, we had a phone call from a member of the public who said they’d seen evidence of beavers on our Helman Tor nature reserve. Surely they must have been mistaken?! They weren’t...

Trail cameras confirmed that we had a pair of beavers, who quickly established a territory on our reserve. It was an unauthorised release by an unknown third party, but fortunately our preparatory work meant that we were well-placed to deal with this and monitor the impact of their activities on the nature reserve.

The beavers were particularly busy as summer approached. In July when the stream water levels dropped, the beavers got to work constructing their first dam, which began holding more water on site in a large pool, enhancing the habitat for an array of other species. The beavers’ grazing on leaves and woody material led to trees being coppiced, most of which re-grew, resulting in a more complex and dynamic habitat. The beavers were living up to their keystone species reputation, providing new opportunities for other mammals, wetland birds, wild flowers, invertebrates, reptiles and fish. 

At the end of the year our Beaver Team began hosting public consultation events across the Par and Fowey catchments, providing the opportunity for anyone interested to come and learn more about our proposed wild release, consider our management plans, and share their thoughts.  

A big moment came in February this year: the UK Government announced that it was accepting applications for licensed wild release of beavers in England. The moment we had been waiting for was finally here! At Cornwall Wildlife Trust, we were all absolutely thrilled and submitted our Expression of Interest application soon afterwards.

The story doesn’t stop here. We hope to be among the first to secure a wild-release licence, and plan to release beavers into the wild in our Par and Fowey project area this autumn. That will be just the start of a ten-year project, which is likely to cost over £800,000. We’ll need to monitor the activity of the various beaver pairs to report back on the positive impact for wildlife whilst making sure we keep them in check, and supporting landowners and communities through the transition to living alongside beavers. Watch this space as we progress in our beaver journey – and if you’re able to support this work you’ll be helping to make history…

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