Project/Applicant Name: Cheshire Wildlife Trust

County: Cheshire

Theme: Rebuilding Biodiversity

Grant Received: £42,677.36

After acquiring an area of undesignated land immediately to the north-east of Hatchmere Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Cheshire Wildlife Trust confirmed that the land could be usefully managed to benefit both sites – all they needed were some beavers! The benefits of beavers are manifold: increasing carbon storage, raising groundwater levels and improving habitat, water quality and chemical composition.

Thanks to the grant from Biffa Award and a public appeal, the Trust were able to relocate a pair of beavers from Scotland – England’s tenth beaver reintroduction. The funding helped to create a secure enclosure for the beavers, construct a holding pen for health checks and annual monitoring, translocate the beavers to the site and train staff and volunteers in beaver management.

The five year project saw formation of a new landscape as the beavers alter their surroundings. The changes they cause will create new spaces for amphibians, birds and insects in which to thrive.