BEAVERS ARE COMING
Beaver Enclosure Tours on sale now!
We’re expanding our range of tours for 2026. From family-friendly beaver trails during half term, to more in depth beaver enclosure tours, these are perfect gift for the Nature lover in your life. Be sure to book quickly to avoid disappointment.
Context: Restoring the River Glen
Extensive monitoring of the West Glen River that runs through Boothby Wildland has revealed that it is hydrologically dysfunctional - struggling to retain water and support wildlife. During dry periods, the river becomes a trickle, while heavy rainfall causes it to surge, break its banks at Lower Bitchfield, and flood roads and neighbouring areas downstream. These extremes highlight the urgent need to restore our 2km stretch of the river to a healthier state.
Why Beavers?
Nature’s own ecosystem engineers are central to our plans. Beavers are a keystone species that have co-evolved with native UK wildlife, creating and maintaining wetland habitats that support biodiversity, improve water quality, and help prevent flooding by slowing water flow and storing it in the landscape. As herbivores, they shape freshwater environments by building dams and engineering wetland areas where they feel safest. Once hunted to extinction in Britain for their fur, beavers have been reintroduced over the past decade due to their vital role in restoring degraded freshwater ecosystems.
Fast workers
Beavers get to work building their dams and lodges with a speed and effectiveness humans can’t replicate
Water Storage
Beaver dams help slow the flow of water, purifying it and storing it on the wildland to help mitigate flooding and drought
Biodiversity Uplift
As well as creating wetland, beavers help sunlight reach the woodland floor and increase the amount of deadwood, providing new & improved wildlife habitats
Approach
To guide our work, experts measured factors such as water quality, flow rate, and biodiversity along the river’s course through Boothby Wildland, confirming that restoration was essential to reduce flood risk, improve water quality, and create diverse wildlife habitats.
As part of our Defra Landscape Recovery pilot, extensive modelling and expert consultation revealed that this stretch of Boothby Wildland was historically a wet valley bottom, shaped by seasonal streams and ponds rather than a continuously flowing river. Over time, human intervention straightened and deepened the river into an incised channel, disconnecting it from its floodplain and causing water to drain rapidly from the land.
To restore its natural function, we plan to slow the flow by widening the channel, adding pools and meanders, and lowering the floodplain. This will allow the land to retain water during both drought and heavy rainfall, improve water quality, and support a diverse range of wildlife - helping to reverse the loss of wetland habitats across the UK.
Re-engineering this very straight river is not a small job and we need help
Beaver Monitoring
Experts from the Beaver Trust and the University of Exeter modelled how the beavers will transform the West Glen. The key aim is to alleviate flooding downstream, but we certainly want to ensure there’s no flooding upstream too, or on neighbouring land.
Over time, we’ll record the beaver activity across the wildland to build a picture of their behaviours and to measure their impact. Our map below explains some of the evidence we’ll be collecting.
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Camera Traps
Strategically positioned camaras that are triggered by movement will help us compile footage of beaver activity.
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Free-Roaming Photography
Our resident photographer will visit the enclosure regularly to capture evidence of their magic.
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Drone Photography
Capturing the whole enclosure from above will generate a time-lapse of the evolving landscape.
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Fixed Point Photography
Regular photographs will be taken at set locations to log changes over time.
How we prepared for beavers
Securing the License
In 2025 we secured our license from Natural England (the Government’s authorisation body) to reintroduce beavers into a 200ha enclosure on the West Glen River. This will be the largest in England by three times! It’s important to note that we are planning an enclosed and managed release – we want our future beavers to stay at Boothby Wildland where their amazing skills will transform this landscape.
Community Engagement
A series of village hall meetings and online consultations in 2024 helped us to secure wide support for our plans, understand and alleviate any concerns, and work together to determine our approach. Community feedback in 2025 helped determine the final spec of the fencing around the enclosure – and we’ve been reaching out to local groups to identify collaborative educational beaver-related activities for young people.
Preparing the Wildland
In preparation for their arrival, our team have undergone specialist training, obtaining license from Natural England and learning about beaver biology, behaviour and welfare. Our volunteers have helped prepare the wildland, for example planting fast-growing trees such as willow whips, whilst protecting some of the existing trees (and telegraph poles!) from potential beaver felling. We have constructed Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) using material from nearby woodland, to give the beavers a head start. A digger was also brought in to widen some of the deepest channels, letting water meander out into the wildland.
Crucially, specialist beaver fencing, with upgraded pedestrian and horse gates, have been installed around the 200ha perimeter. There are bespoke grates on the ditches and in and out flow of the river, to prevent the beavers escaping. Badger tunnels have been installed on the fenceline, allowing for the free movement of our existing wildlife through the wider landscape. Thankfully, otters are much more agile than beavers, so are able to use specially designed ‘otter ladders’ for safe passage.