My Wild Life

Izzie Tween

Izzie joined the Trust this summer as our Beaver Recovery Project Officer. Izzie has been developing an engagement plan and working with the local communities and stakeholders on the Island to develop our plans to return beavers to the Eastern Yar.

I got involved in conservation from an early age, as my dad works for Luton Borough Council as Senior Landscape & Ecology Officer. So, at the age of eight (as soon as I was old enough to be covered by the insurance!), I would volunteer with Luton and Dunstable Conservation Volunteers in the Chiltern Hills, helping to restore chalk grassland habitats and meadows of the River Lea.

I did my Bachelors in Zoology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, and while there I got the opportunity to go on a field course on Aquatic Ecology at Kindrogan Field Studies Centre, which I found really enjoyable and inspiring! Rivers are so beautiful, and I was already spending as much time as possible white-water kayaking, so the chance to study them seemed the perfect marriage of my research interests and passions! Beavers had recently been reintroduced in Scotland, but were quite under studied at the time, so I decided to do my undergraduate dissertation on the environmental impact of beaver reintroductions. Beavers had been absent from the UK for about 400 years, and they can change habitats dramatically - hence they are known as ‘ecosystem engineers’. I was lucky enough to carry out my research on the Bamff estate in Perthshire, with the generous support of the Ramsay family, who have a real passion for rewilding and shared their enthusiasm with me. And I suppose the rest is history, as they say!

I was fortunate enough to be able to continue my work with beavers in the USA. I worked on the Methow Beaver Project in Washington State, on an International Exchange relocating beavers. The beavers are encouraged to build their dams at their release sites where their industrious efforts can be put to good use storing water on the landscape and causing lower stream temperatures, which leads to excellent habitat for young Pacific salmon. I spent three seasons working on this project in Washington, during which I gained my Masters in Environmental Science at Washington State University.

Beaver release in Washington State.

I then took up a permanent position with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, where my role as Native Aquatics Technician encompassed not just beavers but also threatened and endangered species of fish, amphibians and molluscs. When my temporary student visa expired, I was delighted when the opportunity came up to use my experience to develop rewilding projects here in the UK!

Bella, the north American beaver.

As I start my role with the Trust, my first job will be to reacquaint myself with the local area! When I was growing up, I went on family holidays to the Isle of Wight, but my new role will involve becoming familiar with more than just my childhood haunts of Blackgang Chine, Robin Hill and Alum Bay! From a practical point, I will be working on preparing the licence application for a beaver reintroduction to be approved by Natural England. Just as important will be engaging with members of the community, reaching out to landowners and interested stakeholders and listening to opinions from the wider community. Beavers have an extensive impact on the environment, so making sure that a full consultation process is carried out before a release is fundamental to the success of the project. We hope to get local people on board by working with all stakeholders on plans for the long-term management of beavers, to allow the community and nature to co-exist. Public support through engagement with nature is rising, so I’m excited to see what we can achieve here on the Island in the next few years!

The Eastern Yar is the perfect place for beavers to be reintroduced, as it provides the perfect combination of excellent quality habitat and a large proportion of the land alongside it is owned and managed for conservation. We are particularly excited about the potential of Newchurch Moors Nature Reserve, which lies in the Eastern Yar catchment. The river flows right through this wetland, and there are some large pools of standing water on the site. These pools will provide the deep water needed for beavers to feel safe from predation, and they are also surrounded by a copse of woodland full of beavers’ favourite food - trees such as willow and alder. We anticipate beavers will thrive in this habitat, and the sites will benefit from the localised flooding that beaver dams would generate, leading to an increase in habitat complexity and biodiversity.

Cutting edge research from the University of Exeter, using the Devon Beaver Trial as a case study, has shown that beaver dams can retain water, slowing it down behind them and reducing the risk of flash flooding during storm events. We therefore hope to use beavers’ ingenuity to strategically flood our local wetland nature reserves, which will hold back water to the benefit of urban communities downstream.