Beavers Are Returning to England’s Rivers as Wild Releases Gather Pace

For some four hundred years, the Eurasian beaver was missing from England’s waterways, hunted to extinction for its fur, meat and scent glands. In February 2026, that long absence took another decisive step toward ending. Natural England announced that two newly licensed projects in the south-west had begun wild releases, joining the National Trust’s existing licensed release at Purbeck in Dorset — a quiet but historic milestone in the nation’s recovery of one of its most important native species.

The releases are part of a fast-accelerating program. Around 100 beavers are set to be returned to the wild across England in 2026, and Natural England is now working with some 30 promising projects, nine of which have already been invited to apply for licenses. Proposals span Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Kent, the Isle of Wight and Cumbria, with ambitions to eventually see beavers return to some of England’s largest river systems, including the Humber, the Severn and the Thames.

“In February 2026, that long absence took another decisive step toward ending.”

The enthusiasm rests on what beavers actually do once they get to work. As nature’s engineers, they fell trees, dig channels and build dams that create sprawling wetlands. Those wetlands slow floodwaters, store water through droughts, filter pollution and create rich habitat for fish, amphibians, insects and birds. To help projects succeed, Natural England also launched the Beaver Considerations Assessment Toolkit, an online mapping resource that shows where beavers are likely to thrive and where their dam-building might interact with farmland and infrastructure.

The work is being carried out by a broad coalition that includes Natural England, Defra, the Environment Agency, the National Trust and many farming, fisheries, forestry and environmental groups, who together stress that responsible reintroduction is the only way to secure beavers’ future in England. After centuries of absence, the splash of a beaver’s tail on an English river is becoming a familiar sound once more — proof that even a species lost for centuries can be welcomed home when communities decide to make room for it.