Beavering away The hard work of Cornwall Willdlife Trust

How an experimental flood prevention scheme has come up trumps

In 2017, Woodland Valley Farm near Ladock was a tidily beautiful green space. There was one pond, fed by Nankilly Water, with one stream in and another out. Today the site is utterly unrecognisable, with seven large ponds surrounded by wetlands and overgrowth.

It’s considerably messier, and that’s exactly how owner Chris Jones likes it.

It’s all thanks to the neighbours who moved in five years ago. Who are they? Look around and the clues are there for all to see: felled trees brought down by almost cartoonish toothmarks, several dams – classic beaver traits. All that’s missing is someone yelling “TIMBERRRRR!”

The Cornwall Beaver Project - a partnership between Woodland Valley Farm, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, The Beaver Trust and the University of Exeter - celebrated its fifth anniversary in June by unveiling a wheelchair-friendly boardwalk. Around 5,000 members of the public have visited the site since 2017, while millions more have seen it on mainstream TV programmes such as BBC’s Springwatch.

The beavers were an experimental solution to an ongoing problem. “In 2012, Ladock flooded twice within a month,” Chris recalls. “It would have happened again in 2013, but a big tree had fallen and diverted the water. It struck me that with the increasing rainfall we were being told to expect, we needed to find a way of holding water on our land.”

While many measures required funding, beavers promised to do the work for free. Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, a male and a female - named Chewy and Willow - were released into the five-acre enclosure on the farm, with two kits born less than a year later.

The gamble paid off: thanks to natural flood defences created by these ‘ecosystem engineers’, water now takes over an hour to travel through the site, compared to just 15 minutes prior to the beavers’ arrival. Dams hold water in dry periods, helping to cut drought and subsequent flash flooding, reduce erosion and improve water quality.

Progress has been eagerly monitored by everyone from farmers and flooding consultants to researchers and wildlife recorders. Native species have flourished, including 13 that were previously absent from the site - such as the willow tit (the UK’s most threatened resident bird, having declined 94% since the 1970s), and the pole cat, once on the brink of extinction in Britain. Fish have also increased in size.

So, having been hunted to extinction 400 years ago, beavers are now back in Britain, with five enclosures located across Cornwall and calls for more carefully considered wild releases in areas of flooding and biodiversity loss.

Cheryl Marriott, head of conservation at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said: “It’s amazing what can happen when you let nature look after itself, without the need for humans to manage it. The beavers have breathed new life into this habitat and their natural dam-building behaviour has delivered lots of benefits for both wildlife and people.

“With the ever more extreme weather events that we’re getting, beavers give us hope that our streams and all the wildlife that relies on them can adapt to the changes. We must use their natural ‘superpowers’ in the sustainable, longterm restoration of our wetlands.”

The trust hopes to replicate the success of the Cornwall Beaver Project at Helman Tor nature reserve, one of its most important wetlands, between Bodmin and Lostwithiel. Here, a mosaic of wetland, woodland and grassland habitats supports many rare species, including the marsh fritillary, one of Europe’s most endangered butterflies, as well as otters, dormice and willow tits.

In June, the trust celebrated its 60th year by launching its largest-ever fundraising appeal to acquire the 97-acre Creney Farm. The site is almost entirely surrounded by the Helman Tor reserve, which has been bought up in parcels since 1980.The trust needs to raise £240,000 through a public appeal, with a philanthropist and CWT supporter agreeing to match donations pound-for-pound up to £120,000.

Research completed in 2020 by the trust, in partnership with Cornwall Council and the University of Exeter, shows Cornwall’s nature is in trouble. Over the last 30 years, nearly half of terrestrial mammals and 60% of butterflies are found in fewer places. Almost 50% of breeding birds, such as the buzzard and yellowhammer, have also declined.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust wants to ensure at least 30% of Cornwall’s land, rivers and seas are managed well for wildlife by 2030. The new plot will contribute to this target by reconnecting and restoring land for nature’s benefit, as well as providing better reserve access with a new main entrance and enhanced visitor parking.

“If we’re going to hit this target, we need bigger nature reserves - rich, special places for wildlife,” says Cheryl. “But we can’t do this alone. We want to work with neighbouring farmers and other landowners in the Helman Tor area to support sustainable land management and create corridors through which wildlife can expand.

“Nature is missing from too much of our countryside but given the chance, it can recover in the most remarkable way.” l

Helman Tor View © Ben Watkins & Cornwall Wildlife Trust

To contribute to the Creney Farm appeal and have your donation doubled, visit www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/landappeal or call 01872 273939 (select option 2).

To learn more about The Cornwall Beaver Project and book onto a guided walk, visit www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/ cornwallbeaverproject

As myCornwall went to press, the trust launched yet another programme with the aim of restoring intertidal seagrass found in the Fal Estuary. These underwater meadows are sometimes called the ‘lungs of the sea’ because of their incredible ability to store massive amounts of carbon. Funded by clothing brand Seasalt Cornwall, the Seeding Change Together project will use new technology to identify and test restoration methods that can be scaled up in the fight against climate change.