\n In 2023, the project moved a family of five wild beavers onto \ufeffa 24-acre stretch of land in Ealing called Paradise Fields. \u201cIt was kind of a forgotten and neglected space,\u201d McCormack said. Over the last few years, it\u2019s been transformed.\n <\/p>\n
\n As climate change supercharges storms and other extreme weather, rewilding projects are emerging as one solution \u2014 harnessing the skills of animals to create more resilient landscapes. But, experts warn, the efforts must be done carefully.\n <\/p>\n
\n Wild beavers went extinct in the UK around 400 years ago, as humans hunted them for their fur, meat and scent gland secretions, which have a musky, vanilla-like fragrance and were used as food flavoring and in perfumes.\n <\/p>\n
\n In recent years, however, beaver reintroductions have started to become more popular in the country because these semi-aquatic rodents are amazing natural engineers.\n <\/p>\n
\n Their strong teeth \u2014 fortified with iron that makes them a striking orange color \u2014 can chisel through sticks and trees. They eat the bark and use the wood to build dams, creating natural reservoirs.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Beavers'](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gettyimages-2176478765.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n These pools offer the beavers refuge from predators; for humans, they provide natural flood control. Beaver engineering can turn the landscape into a sponge, allowing it to hold more water when it rains, meaning less runs off to flood downstream.\n <\/p>\n
\n Beavers dig canals, too. These are \u201clike little micro-streams that radiate outward from their ponds across valley bottoms like a spiderweb of water,\u201d said Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota, who is not involved in the West London project. \u201cThese further mitigate flood damage by spreading the floodwaters out over a larger area.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The flat-tailed rodents can also provide protection against other extreme weather. The wetlands they create are helpful during droughts, as water can percolate into surrounding dry areas. They can also guard against wildfires because the land is essentially too wet to burn, Fairfax told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n There\u2019s a joke in the beaver science community \u201cthat if you\u2019ve got a problem, there\u2019s a beaver for that,\u201d Fairfax said. It\u2019s an oversimplification, she acknowledged, but beavers \u201creally do provide a staggering number of ecosystem services.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n So far, the London initiative has been a success. By the beavers\u2019 second winter at the site, there was no flooding in the target area for the first time in a decade, McCormack said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The beavers\u2019 work has also created a mosaic of different habitats, encouraging other animals to flock to the site, including birds, butterflies, bats and even freshwater shrimp and fish.\n <\/p>\n
\n There are currently eight beavers at Paradise Fields, as well as a new litter of babies, called kits, that were born in the spring. The project won\u2019t know how many kits there are until they emerge from their lodge, which is likely to happen later this month, McCormack said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Beaver rewilding projects are taking off across the US, too, especially in the West.\n <\/p>\n
\n But beavers cannot be released just anywhere, Fairfax said. There needs to be enough food, water and space for them to build their wetland home. Humans near the site must be receptive to the animals, and a community needs a contingency plan in case the beavers engineer too close to human infrastructure.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Beavers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/231011161810-ealing-beavers-swimming.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Not everyone embraces beaver rewilding, especially when \u2014 unlike the Ealing project \u2014 the animals are introduced illicitly, said George Holmes, a conservation professor at the University of Leeds. It\u2019s a tactic sometimes called \u201cbeaver bombing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Beavers can create problems for farmers and landowners. The tunnels they dig in riverbanks can be big enough to trap cattle and machinery, and there are concerns about flooding of farmland and infrastructure, said Holmes, who co-authored a recent study<\/a> on local opposition to beaver rewilding.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cBeavers are seen as just another thing that farmers (and others) didn\u2019t ask for, which is imposed on them,\u201d he told CNN. He acknowledged beaver rewilding can bring positive impacts but urged caution. \u201cThere are a lot of people out there promising that beavers will do all these \ufeffmarvelous things, but I think they are making promises they can\u2019t keep.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Fairfax said she understands the oppositon. \u201cIt does sound absurd to trust a 70-pound pond rat to make engineering decisions and control the waterways we depend on,\u201d Fairfax said.\n <\/p>\n \n But beavers have been engineering ecosystems for millions of years, she added. In the right areas, \u201cwe should trust them to build wetlands \u2014 that\u2019s their specialty.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The Ealing community has been receptive. The day CNN visited, a dozen people approached McCormack asking about beaver sightings; a group of men sat on a bench enjoying post-work beers and beaver spotting; children walked home from school past beaver dams; and a gaggle of wildlife enthusiasts were led on a \u201cbeaver safari.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A dense city might not seem like an intuitive place for beaver rewilding, but bringing nature back to urban areas is hugely beneficial, McCormack said. \u201cWe\u2019re demonstrating here that actually it\u2019s not that wild an idea to live alongside beavers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n ![\"Aerial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gettyimages-1454887461.jpg\")
<\/p>\n