Beavers are native to the UK, and were hunted to extinction around 400 years ago. With the recent announcement from the Scottish government that their beavers will be allowed to stay, spread naturally and be given legal protection, beaver projects elsewhere in the UK are in need of support. The Devon Beaver Project has received a fair bit of support, including from Chris Packham, but the Welsh Beaver Project has not had enough attention...so I thought a less well known guy should support a less well known project!

Beavers are known to be major ecosystem engineers and keystone species, significantly boosting biodiversity, creating wetland habitat, improving water quality and they could play a major role in flood mitigation and nature tourism revenue generation. As a lover of the UK countryside, the fact of the matter is we live in a highly manicured, manipulated landscape. Even our areas of outstanding natural beauty, such as the Lake District, have low biodiversity ratings compared to mainland Europe. Bringing beavers back will inject some life back into the UK landscape, while reversing some of the damage we have inflicted on UK waterways. Their return would also be a conservation milestone for the UK, comprising the first ever reintroduction of a native British mammal, and be a major step forward for UK rewilding.

As a very small token of my support for this project, I will be spending Christmas day (and my birthday) volunteering at The Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital with my family. Please consider contributing to what I think is a really great cause, and spreading the word if you can. Thank you.