Wetlands are some of the most threatened habitats in the world, with 80% of the world’s wetlands having been lost in the past 300 years, yet they are also the most vital for wildlife and people.

Wetlands are biologically diverse wonderlands – a key life source. Water and its associated habitats provide nesting, foraging, shelter and breeding habitats for a huge abundance of wildlife. With wet soil rich in minerals and nutrients, they support a wide variety of plants such as spearwort, reeds and mosses. They provide a home for dragonflies, damselflies, mayflies, snails, shrimps and water beetles, and in turn a haven for fish, amphibians and mammals such as bats, water vole and otter. Swarming with insects, they attract swathes of birds from ducks and waders to songbirds and birds of prey.

Wetlands not only provide vital habitat for an abundance of species, but they also help prevent drought and flooding and play an important role in the fight against climate change. Acting almost like a sponge, wetland systems soak up floodwater and reduce the risk of flooding in communities by storing water during wet seasons and in contrast by releasing it slowly during droughts. Wetlands soften the impacts of climate change and can store up to 50 times more carbon than rainforests.

In the UK we have been losing our wetlands for centuries through changes to habitat and river structure and draining the land of water. Wetlands have been decreasing rapidly worldwide, and according to RAMSAR we are losing wetlands three times faster than forests, and there is a great need for their restoration. Part of the reason for the collapse of wetlands in the UK can be attributed to the loss of one iconic native species that is luckily making a return after 400 years – Eurasian beavers.

Beavers are a keystone wetland species and without them the wetland habitats of the UK have become a shell of what they once were. Beavers can have a key influence and the power to make a difference in restoring and creating wetlands across the UK. The early motivation for bringing beavers back was mostly about playing a part in restoring a declining species to its native range. Now the beavers value as a keystone species in natural flood management and drought prevention has influenced a gaining traction to bring this iconic mammal back to the UK in the form of licensed enclosed projects, like the one we have in Dorset, as well as wild release sites in Devon on the River Otter and parts of Scotland.

Beavers can transform simple uniform streams into thriving complex ecosystems, and restoring beavers as a keystone wetland species creates the right ecological condition for other native species to return. The power of beavers lies in their behaviour which dramatically alters their environment. Beavers expand wetland habitat to suit their needs by creating dams and channels which hold and spread water across their environment. The dams increase the area and depth of water, slow down the flow and keep it in the landscape for longer. Felling trees, creating dams, disturbing the water and letting light in means the beavers create dynamic varied wetland habitats. Ecotones, where different types of habitats meet, form in beaver wetlands. The diverse structure and elements of water, trees, and mud create rich opportunities for biodiversity.

Beaver ponds are shallow, littered with deadwood and generally disturbed by their activities such as feeding on plants, digging canals, repairing dams and building lodges.  Woody material in the form of dams, feeding and felling remains creates wet woody habitat that is in various stages of decay and constantly changing. The beaver’s presence means that the water’s edge is constantly shifting and trees and vegetation along the water’s edge are coppiced creating amazing wet scrubby woodland habitat.

Here at Dorset Wildlife Trust, we have seen firsthand the impact beavers can have on creating, expanding and improving wetland habitats at our enclosed Dorset Beaver Project site. Here the beavers have greatly expanded the water surface and depth, created several dams that hold water in the environment all year round and have dramatically slowed the flow of water moving through the environment and travelling downstream. In various recent storms we have witnessed the amount of sediment and leaves held back by the beaver dams, which would have previously rushed downstream. The beavers have had a dramatic effect on the habitat within their site and this is having a wonderful benefit to the local environment, wildlife and people.

Beavers create specialist, complex, dynamic habitats that we could never match, and build essential wetland habitat for a fraction of the cost of alternative river and wetland restoration interventions. We hope that the recognition of what these wonderful ecological engineers can do for wetlands in the UK will continue to be recognized and that beavers will soon be living on more of our river catchments, helping to restore our wetland habitats.

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