BEAVER APPEAL

HELP US BRING BACK BEAVERS

We want to live in an urban landscape filled with wildlife, a landscape where beavers once more thrive after they went extinct in London 400 years ago!

Together with Ealing Wildlife Group, Friends of Horsenden Hill and Ealing Council, we’ve launched London’s first truly urban beaver reintroduction project to bring these charismatic animals back to the capital, and we need your help!

We’re raising £50,000 to bring back a pair of beavers and release them into our large, urban site in Ealing this autumn. Having already secured £39,000 from the Mayor of London, we are on our way to achieving this target, but need more support!

The funding will help us secure the site with vital infrastructure, employ key staff to manage the project and work with the local community, as well as deploy a community engagement programme to train locals to become Beaver Believers (local beaver guardians). We view this project as key to creating a blueprint for beavers within the urban realm.

WHY WE NEED BEAVERS

We believe beavers have an intrinsic right to exist in this world, for their own sake. A world with beavers is a richer world for people, and wildlife too. We’re living through a twin crisis of climate breakdown and mass loss of life on earth, and beavers help mitigate the impacts of both.

They are ecosystem engineers, meaning they have a profound impact on their surrounding environment. They do this by building dams and altering the landscape, not only creating new habitats for themselves, but for other animals as well.

Their damming behaviours not only store water but also store silt and sediment, which combined not only help alleviate the impacts of drought but also store carbon through sedimentation over time.

THE PROJECT

Our project is based in Ealing and will be London’s first truly urban reintroduction of beavers. We have support from the landowner, Ealing Council, and are working with local conservationists at Ealing Wildlife Group and Friends of Horsenden Hill to deliver the project. It has huge potential in terms of community engagement, as well as providing benefits for local people through reducing flooding in the Greenford area.

We need to raise money for a staff member to project manage the reintroduction, including organising logistics for site improvements ahead of the installation of a beaver-secure fence. They will also deliver a range of community engagement activities to prepare local people for living alongside beavers once again and ensure the project is a success. Having a key member of staff who leads the project on the ground will be vital, not only to make this project run smoothly but also to help teach others around London about the potential for more beavers throughout the capital.

The funding will also support the management of the London Beaver Working group, which we founded two years ago. Its members include a wide range of partners across the city, who are working towards managing natural colonisations and reintroductions in the years to come. These two work streams combined will define a template for urban beavers not just in London, but also across the UK.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT

With our licence now secured, we are going full steam ahead to make this dream become a reality, but we need your help! By donating today, your support could help us finalise this exciting reintroduction, as well as support our wider programme with the London Beaver Working Group. Both of these projects are essential for restoring this incredible species back to a landscape where it once thrived.

Donate today!

A gift today could support our mission to Rewild Our Future in various ways:

£20 could pay for vital equipment for surveying the site, such as hand lenses and identification sheets

£50 could pay for camera trap equipment to survey the site ahead of our reintroduction

£100 could pay for four metres worth of beaver-proof fencing to secure the site ahead of their reintroduction

£250 could pay for a local school class to visit the site to learn about beavers

Thank you for all your support.

Citizen Zoo Crew