YEARS of beaver activity have successfully helped reduce the impact of flooding and drought in an Essex estate, according to experts.
The Environment Agency says beavers at the Spains Hall Estate, near Finchingfield, now store roughly three million litres of water after they were introduced five years ago.
In 2019, the estate worked with the Environment Agency to release the area’s first pair of beavers in East Anglia for more than 400 years, giving them free rein across 10 acres of woodland and a stream.
Over the years the beaver family, which now has 11 members, has created nine dams, resulting in the stockpiling of water in ponds which now cover almost a quarter of the estate’s woodland.
Spains Hall Estate covers around 2,000 acres and is a mix of arable land, ancient and broad-leaved woodland, grassland and tenanted farms.
It is also home to the natural flood management project.
According to data collected by Kings College London, the way that water flows across the estate’s farmland has changed, and the beavers have continually built bigger dams to trap more water each times it rains.
The changes mean that storm water now flows downstream more slowly, and some of it can be held for several months as it releases back into the river, helping alleviate low river water levels in the summer.
Matt Butcher, of the Environment Agency, said: “We are delighted that the beavers have thrived and improved the landscape.
“Their work has demonstrated that nature-based solutions can be used to tackle challenges in smaller river catchments.
“We initially supported this work as a pilot study and have been really impressed with the results.
“We have since helped the estate scale up their beaver activity through more direct support, along with other partners, which has enabled the construction of two much larger beaver enclosures.”
Beavers play an important role in building wetland ecosystems.
By creating such ecosystems, they provide habitats for many other plant, insect and mammal species.
An animation produced by catchment-scientists from AtkinsRéalis reveals the scale and speed of the changes occurring over five years.
Spains Hall Estate manager Archie Ruggles-Brise said: “This is a massive milestone for us.
“We took a chance five years ago that bringing beavers back would be beneficial, and it’s proven to be better than we could ever have imagined."
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