If you haven’t already – meet Ben. His official title is Nene Valley Projects Officer, though to us, he’s affectionately known as ‘Mr. Beaver’. Ben has been the main man on the ground in the lead up to our exciting beaver release, scheduled to happen very soon.

I caught up with Ben to get the inside info on the project, ask him how things are going, and learn more about why beavers will be great for wildlife, and for local people. The conversation brought up some interesting thoughts about the interaction between our work and local people, and our plans for managing the reserve in the long term.

Pete: The route to conservation is often a meandering one – many of us have come from other sciences before becoming conservationists. You were a chemist in a brewery before this – why did you come here and leave free beer behind?!

Ben: I’ve always had a level of interest in the environment, but I was never really exposed to much of an environmental education as a kid, or even going through high school to be honest. Most of the people I work with have always enjoyed being outdoors and shown an interest in nature for as long as they can remember, that’s not been the case for me – I was very much an indoors’y person up until 5 or 6 years ago! It was really during Uni that I started gaining a greater appreciation for the outdoors - maybe if I’d have been exposed to it a bit more when I was younger, I might have got here sooner.

But anyway – why did I leave free beer behind? Long story short, whilst I was working at the brewery I started to notice how the climate and biodiversity crises were worsening.  I started to feel more concerned about them, but also concerned at how separate I was from them. I thought about the processes being used at the brewery and how those processes might be adding to the problem – heating large quantities of water, using lots of chemicals, creating a lot of waste. I got so concerned by it that I quit the job, did some volunteering, then started an Environmental Sustainability Masters. It was quite broad, so we learnt about all sorts, politics, economics, ecology, but there was one module on nature-based solutions that just blew me away - using nature and wildlife to improve our environment for us, something just clicked. Part of the module looked at natural flood management, and who’d have guessed it, the thing that gripped me the most was the impact of beavers - so it all kicked off from there.

After the Masters I started looking for jobs and The Wildlife Trusts aligned with all my interests and values up to that point. I had no idea that beavers were on the radar until a few months into the role when people started talking about them. My manager Gav, and his manager Matt started the ball rolling on the project, and gradually I took more and more of it on. For a long time it didn’t feel real, but then eventually it became as real as putting the fence in, and then it started to feel very real!

And yeah, the free beer was good, but somehow I actually spent more money on beer then than I do now! Tastes have changed, I think - now I spend my money on outdoor clothing…

Pete: Why beavers?

Ben: People ask me that all the time! There are so many different answers to that question.

I could talk about restoring ecosystems – they’re a ‘keystone species’, which means they have a disproportionate influence on where they live, improving the habitat for many other species.

I could talk about the fact that they’re native to Northamptonshire (and England as a whole) and were here in the wild as recently as 400 years ago, but were unfortunately hunted to extinction. I feel like there’s a responsibility in that to bring them back.

I could talk about something you mention a lot, Pete - the importance of structural diversity, Beavers fell trees creating more complex - and therefore better – habitat, with a varied age structure suitable for a wider range of species.

I could talk about how they’re an amazing tool for engaging people in conversations about wildlife. They’ll be living just a few minutes away from Rushden Lakes shopping centre – they’re going to be a great way to get lots of people interested in and enthusiastic about wildlife.

Beavers are ‘keystone species’ - they have a disproportionate influence on where they live, improving the habitat for many other species. They’re quite cute, too. 

Pete: What impact do they have on other living things?

Ben: I mentioned they’re a keystone species – without them, the whole ecosystem changes. The ecosystem is all the living things in the area they live in; plants, insects, birds, everything. As ‘ecosystem engineers’, they modify their surroundings to their benefit, and fortunately, this benefits lots of other living things too.

Beavers fell (or, ‘coppice’) trees to build lodges, build dams and to eat the bark, twigs and leaves. This coppicing of trees is beneficial in a wetland habitat – it helps reedbed thrive, helps to ensure a varied height structure of trees, benefiting butterflies and wildflowers, and nesting birds. The deadwood left behind is great habitat too. Usually the trees don’t die, but grow back from the base, and the cycle begins again. Rather than having tall trees and not much else, beavers create structural diversity, which in turn, helps biodiversity.

Pete: Where are the beavers coming from? Why are they being moved, and by who?

Ben: They’re coming from the Tayside catchment in Scotland. Beavers have free living status in Scotland, there are approximately 1500 of them living there, and their population is growing which is great to see. Here in England, unfortunately they aren’t allowed to be released into the wild, despite being a native species – though we’re hoping that wild release licenses will be issued by Natural England in the future, it’s a decision for the government though. At the moment there are just under 40 enclosures across the country, of which ours is one. Hopefully legislation will change soon so beavers can be allowed to live freely in England and Wales again. The enclosures are a great first step to bringing beavers back, though.

The beavers are being relocated by the Beaver Trust – they’re currently quarantining and checking the health of a family for us, so they should be with us soon. There may be others in the family they haven’t yet trapped; they’re still actively looking to check they have the whole family. We can’t confirm yet how many will be coming, but we should know soon, we’re looking forward to finding out!

The Beaver Trust have helped to subsidise the project. That’s one of the great things about the conservation sector; we all use what money we have to help wildlife, working in partnership with other organisations to get the job done. Fortunately, many donors have come forward to help make this happen, including members of the public, and Anglian Water, enabling us to spend our own money on the rest of the nature reserve, and the education work we do as well. Overall, we wouldn’t have been able to afford the project without that financial help. We try to break even as an organisation, we’re in a completely different realm to other organisations - the idea of ‘profit’ isn’t the objective!

Pete: I’ve spoken to a small number of people that think the whole nature reserve is an exercise in making lots of money – if only they knew! Have you encountered much kickback against our work, or the project, so far?

Ben: Yes, a couple of times with general reserves work – the handful of cattle we keep are apparently making us millions – they cost us far more in staff time and vet bills than we’d ever make back selling them. Or we’re selling timber for a profit – it actually only makes a tiny percentage back, where we can, if we can get it out of the reserve in the first place! Or would even want to sell it…

On beavers, I’ve had a few conversations that have taken me aback. I’ve worked in pubs in a few places in the country and met a fairly wide range of people, but I’ve had some of the most shocking conversations with people here, about beavers.

People struggle with some of the concepts and reasons behind the project, which is understandable, but people will believe anything apart from the fact that we’re just trying to do the right thing for nature. They then, unfortunately, take their feelings out on us. A few people think there’s a sinister conspiracy that we’re making tons of money! I’ve tried to understand this – I think people feel a sense of ownership over the nature reserve, which deep down is a really good thing – we want to see people passionate about green spaces. Unfortunately, that passion gets misdirected at the very people that are trying to help. We as conservationists have to think about timescales that are difficult to comprehend – what will this look like in a hundred years? We also have to juggle lots of priorities on a tight budget. We’ve had a lot of support which is great, but a small number of people just don’t want to believe we’re doing the right thing.

Pete: Perhaps this says more about the disconnect we’re seeing in local communities and in society as a whole, rather than people’s attitude to green spaces. Is it a ‘trust’ thing?

Ben: It’s quite strange. I spoke to a guy who was angry at me for working on the beaver project, it was just after our winter work last year. I don’t think he was really angry at me, he’d never met me before, how could he be? I think he may have been angry that he didn’t understand, and I think it’s our job to help people understand. People seem to have a scepticism about charities and their intentions – I can’t wrap my head around it. We’re working on connecting with more people through our education programme, projects like Team Wilder, and the conversations we have with people day to day. We’re just trying to help wildlife in our local area - it’s no more complicated than that!

Pete: Is anyone concerned about beavers living in urban areas? They live in the middle of Munich, don’t they?

Ben: Yes, they’ve been in Munich for about 25 years. For us, they will be enclosed, so they won’t have a real impact on the surrounding area, but there is a push to start reintroducing free living beavers in England. This would be great for the valley as a whole, including urban areas. If we think urban areas and nature are separate, we need to remember the extreme flooding we’ve seen in the last year alone. Flooding is a problem that can be aided by natural solutions, including free living beavers. Beavers can help retain huge quantities of flood water, slowing down the flow and protecting our homes and infrastructure. Our beavers won’t do this of course, as they’re fenced in around a lake – but this is a major benefit beavers can have.

Pete: I once read that preventing ecological damage in rivers was on average six times cheaper than cleaning it up afterwards. Presumably managing the impacts beavers would have on the landscape would be far more cost effective than having to react to impacts from flood events and restore healthy ecology after it’s lost?

Ben: Absolutely. It’s not a case of just throwing them out and forgetting about them, they’d need management. Protection of trees we don’t want them to fell, for example. Legal protection for landowners against damages. A system and a plan is needed, and this needs to be implemented by government. Yes, all this costs money – but the impacts we’re seeing already due to climate change are going to cost far more.

Pete: Seriously though – they’re basically big mice. Are they really going to have that much impact?

Ben: My manager, Gav and I recently went to the Spains Hall Estate in Finchingfield, where Essex Wildlife Trust, the Environment Agency and Suffolk Rivers Trust have helped the Estate bring back beavers. The village is prone to flooding, causing expense and upset to local people as we’ve seen so much on the news recently.

Following the beaver reintroduction, the dams the beavers have created were holding back 0.5 million litres per hectare -  in this one enclosure that was two million litres of water, releasing it slowly during dry periods. Two million litres. That’s almost as much as in an Olympic swimming pool. They’re in a small, 4-hectare enclosure. Imagine the water they could hold across the 270 hectares of Nene Wetlands, or the 1500 hectares of the Nene Valley Special Protection Area. It could have a massive impact on how much flooding we have to deal with, improving people’s lives and livelihoods, whilst improving the area for wildlife too.

Pete: For now we’ll just have beavers in an enclosure – presumably there’s a limit to how many our enclosure can hold. How many are we getting? How many is too many?

Ben: We’ll have at least a breeding pair, with a handful of dependent young, or kits. How many is too many? There isn’t a definitive answer there – it depends on the family dynamics, also the habitat and how that changes over time. We’ll be closely monitoring them, so we’ll know if there’s an issue and we’ll take steps to deal with it. I know of an enclosure with 17 individuals within one family group, and that enclosure is much smaller than ours.

Pete: Is there a risk of inbreeding if they’re all closely related?

Ben: This is a common question I get asked. The two dominant adults within a family group suppress this behaviour. The family groups can be very large, as I mentioned before, there’s one I’ve seen which had 17 members. If one of the adults die though, and that dominant suppression breaks down, that’s when there is a risk of inbreeding. Again, we’ll be monitoring the family closely. We’ll keep an eye on them using various surveys and trail cameras too, to make sure they’re still alive and well.

Pete: We’re a science led organisation – is there any other monitoring we’re doing on the beavers or their habitat?

Ben: Yes! The area where the beavers will be released, Delta Pit, is one of the most monitored areas on the reserve. There are lots, but we do bird, bat, reptile, butterfly, and aquatic invertebrate surveys, to name a few. We’ve also mapped the vegetation structure, so we know how much of the area is tall trees, how much is smaller trees, how much is shorter grasses and herbs.

All of this ‘before’ data will give us a good idea how beavers change the habitat and biodiversity over time.

Pete: How long has this been in the planning? It’s a substantial project, isn’t it?

Ben: Yes, the idea of reintroducing them here has been talked about for maybe ten years or so, as with many projects it’s all a case of time and money. About three and a half years ago, Gav and Matt organised a feasibility study with Natural England, and that gave confirmation that it could happen. From there, lots of work has been done on fundraising, and figuring out how to make it happen. There have been various milestones – sorting out the paperwork so we can legally keep them, managing the trees along the fenceline to allow the fence to be put in, limit the risk to the public and improve the edges of the woodland for wildlife, and the installation of the fence – these have been some of the major ones. The installation of the fence has not been plain sailing – the extreme flooding over the last 12 months has slowed things down dramatically.

 Pete: You’ve got to enjoy the irony that we’ve been delayed massively due to flooding, when we’re trying to reintroduce a species that manages flood water?

Ben: Haha, yeah! But it’s all led us to where we are now, the flooding made us aware that our fence was appropriate for floods we’d experienced in the past, but not the more intense, immediate flooding which is becoming more frequent. The fence has now been signed off by The Beaver Trust as being suitable and secure, so the last stage is bringing down the beavers. We’re hopeful we’ll get them in this month – February 2025.

Pete: Once the beavers are settled in, what’s next for Nene Wetlands?

Ben: Lots has happened in the last couple of years. We had the first stage of water vole reintroduction, in partnership with Stanwick Lakes. We’ve done lots of reprofiling work of islands and lake edges, which are already improving, say, Lapwing numbers from handfuls to hundreds over winter. We’ve done lots of tree work that makes the reserve safer for people and more habitable for a wider range of wildlife. We’ve proved we can achieve lots here already.

One major possibility is the installation of mechanical water control, to act like a beaver’s dam, retaining flood water and releasing it slowly, to protect downstream habitat and infrastructure. This is possible in a number of places, and would hugely benefit the wildlife here at Nene Wetlands.

You’ve also talked about our need for an agricultural tractor…

Pete: Yes! That would be a game changer for managing our grassland, hedgerows and path side vegetation, and also enable us to do more to fix the potholes along the paths… So many benefits!

Ben: These are just two of many ideas. We’re never short of ideas because we spend a good amount of time looking at the future and how we can improve things. We just need the funding, that’s always the tricky bit. But, good things will come, because we won’t stop working toward it.

For more information on why cutting down trees can be good for wildlife, see Pete’s blog here - Habitat Management in Northamptonshire: Coppicing for Conservation | Wildlife Trust for Beds Cambs & Northants

We’re working more and more with local communities. To find out more about Team Wilder - Team Wilder | Wildlife Trust for Beds Cambs & Northants