Beavers in the Brit

© Sam Rose

Statement about wild beavers in the wider Brit Catchment (Brit Valley)

Statement date 18/07/25

Staff at West Dorset Wilding have recently started working on an application to explore the reintroduction of wild beavers into the Brit Valley. This will be a long process that will involve discussions with local communities and other interested parties before a full licence application would be submitted to Natural England, probably in the summer of 2026.  The decision will then lie with the government.

The application follows a feasibility study that was completed in 2023, and additional, more detailed, studies, which have concluded that reintroduction is feasible. With proper management, the work shows that beavers would be beneficial to the river and its wildlife.  

Work from other areas in England has suggested that beaver wetlands could reduce flooding to communities at risk, and trap the huge volumes of topsoil that come downstream in high river flows.  In dry conditions, such as we are experiencing in Spring/Summer 2025, beaver dams also hold water back in the landscape, providing important refugia for wildlife, and continuing to slowly release water into parched catchments through periods of drought.

A detailed consultation exercise also undertaken in 2023  generally found very strong local support, and identified questions and concerns that will require further discussion. Beavers are returning to many rivers in the South West already, sometimes as a result of escapes or illegal ‘beaver bombing’, and sometimes purely through migration across watersheds.  West Dorset Wilding are keen to ensure that any beaver reintroduction is carried out responsibly, so that practical help is available for those that need it, and some of the negative issues that can sometimes occur in flat farmland, or on riverside trees, can be proactively addressed. 

We have discussed this at length with our local farming partners and there was broad agreement that it would be better to be prepared for this eventuality with resources and plans already in place for effective management, which has led to engagement with the licence process.   

In order to get to where we are now, an Expression of Interest was submitted to Natural England earlier in 2025 and was recently approved, affirming that the benefits are likely to be significant and the impacts manageable. Over the coming months, more detailed work will look into exactly where beavers might initially be released, and how farmers, landowners, foresters and orchard managers would be involved and supported throughout the project. We will then do further public consultation in 2026 before a final decision is made whether to proceed with the project. 

For more information about beavers and what they do please go to this page, and for more about management see here.

For more information contact beavers@westdorsetwilding.org