Beavers - Nature's Engineers

Beavers are beneficial to the environment! That's the conclusion of a research project led by Dr Nigel Willby of the University of Stirling.

Nigel’s team, which is part of the School of Natural Sciences, undertook their research at a site in Tayside, where beavers were reintroduced in 2002. The team’s research has confirmed what has been suspected by many conservationists for some time; beavers bring a range of positive benefits to their environment from restoring degraded streams and increasing habitat complexity, through to reducing levels of pollutants and increasing flood water storage.

The findings of the research will clearly have an implication for the way in which future beavers reintroduction projects are viewed throughout Great Britain.

This blog was informed by research undertaken by the University of Stirling, which was published on the Stirling University Web Site.

Image Credits: Andrea Bohl