Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust
Idle Beavers Idle Valley Nature Reserve’s precious wetlands need help…but beavers could be the key to unlocking the reserve's vast potential for wildlife. Erin McDaid, Head of Communications & Marketing, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.
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he past 11 months have been challenging for the team at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust – whether in terms of keeping nature reserves open for visitors and in good shape for wildlife without the usual level of support from volunteers due to lockdowns or the difficulties of working from home. Despite this we’ve continued to make amazing progress with some really exciting projects. In the south of the county we secured ownership of the Attenborough Nature Reserve, fulfilling an ambition first mooted in the 1960s. Here in North Notts we’re on the brink of being able to bring back beavers to the county after a gap of at least 400 years. The sheer scale of Idle Valley Nature Reserve, off North Road, Retford, at almost 400 hectares, has always been a challenge. Over the past few years we’ve been investigating ways to harness the power of nature to help create better conditions for wildlife and we now have the exciting opportunity to bring beavers back to our county to work their magic. We’ve been busy ‘beavering away’ behind the scenes, doing research and surveys as well as working with national experts to see if beavers could help us unlock more of the site’s amazing potential for wildlife. A key element of our
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recent work has been reviewing the potential for the reintroduction of native species with input from experts and partners through our Species Recovery Framework. Alongside facilities to help us manage water levels and the expansion of our conservation grazing programme we firmly believe that beavers are the answer. We’re now busy putting everything in place so we can hopefully welcome beavers later this year. This work has been given real momentum thanks to the support of Severn Trent Water through their Great Big Nature Boost and we’ve recently launched a fundraising appeal to ensure we can make this happen and truly transform the site. We’ve also launched an online survey to give people living locally the opportunity to share their thoughts on the exciting prospect of the beavers’ return, and on the potential of further species reintroductions. To help give us a sense of the resilience of the local landscape the survey also provides an opportunity for people to record a snapshot of the wildlife they’ve seen or heard recently in their gardens and local area. As we respond to the combined ecological and climate crisis we have to be prepared to think big; to find new ways to restore nature.
