Blog: Stephen Oliver

Blog

Wetland at the Dorset Beaver Project site

World Wetlands Day: The Dorset Beaver Project

On World Wetland Day 2025, Assistant Rivers and Wetlands Conservation Officer, Hannah Divine, shares and celebrates the important role beavers can play in restoring the UK wetland habitats for…

Beaver felled tree in the water

Beaver Blog: Beavers and trees

In the latest beaver blog Rivers Conservation Officer, Steve Oliver, describes the relationship between beavers and trees.

Second generation beaver kit in the water

Beaver Blog October 2023

As we mark the one year anniversary of beavers being recognised as a resident native species in England, we provide an update from the newly extended Dorset Beaver Project.

Male beaver at the water's edge © Dorset Wildlife Trust/James Burland

Beaver Blog April 2023

Today is International Beaver Day, a day to celebrate these fantastic ecosystem engineers. In the latest Beaver Blog we will be taking a look at how the beavers anatomy is perfectly designed for…

Beaver felled willow tree

Beaver Blog November 2022

As winter approaches, find out how the beavers at the Dorset Beaver Project site are preparing for the cold months ahead.

LWD installed to imitate a fallen tree where there is a lack of this natural habitat. 

Devil's Brook River restoration

Rivers Conservation Officer, Stephen Oliver, describes the work involved in the restoration of Devil's Brook using Large Wood Debris and how this can positively impact wildlife.

Common toad sheltering in a beaver dam

Beaver Blog August 2022

As we experience increasingly dry summers, droughts are likely to become a regular occurrence in the UK. Beavers could be the solution to combatting future water shortages, benefitting both humans…

Beaver kit in July 2022

Beaver Blog July 2022

Beavers have successfully bred in Dorset for the first time in over 400 years. Trail cameras inside our enclosed site have captured images of a young beaver, known as a kit and its mother,…

Beaver felled willow tree

Beaver Blog

Beavers have been back in Dorset for over a year and we are learning about their habits now that they have experienced a full cycle of Dorset's seasons. Steve Oliver reports on what they…

Beaver enclosure

Beaver Blog

Dorset's beavers have really got to work on making themselves at home and, using trail cameras, we are able to share wonderful footage of the beavers hard at work constructing dams to create…