Thirteen members and friends met on a wet November morning to be led by Robert Cullen of Forestry England to a beaver enclosure in the middle of the Forest of Dean.
A fence was set up here in 2024 to enclose 12 hectares of mixed woodland cut through by the Perryhay Ditch. Previously this brook ran only in winter or after rains and was usually dry over the summer. The two beavers introduced here – the female from a Scottish release site and the male from Devon – quickly paired up and had three kits this year.
We did not expect to see beavers, but there was plenty of evidence of their presence. Within about 20m of the stream we came across frequent long poles with pointed ends lying on the ground. The beavers had felled small trees, gnawing round the base, stripping off the nutritious bark and nipping off the side branches. With this brash they had created about 10 dams along the brook using the twiggy material from the trees packed with mud. Thus the brook held water even through the drought summer of 2025.
Beavers need the pools not for the fish (they are strictly vegetarian) but so that they have a protected underwater approach to their dens.
Rob has kindly provided footage from the trailcams showing dam repair, an adult with kit eating bracken, the pair play-fighting (apparently beavers are quite capable of killing each other but this is just having fun, here watched by wild boar). The goshawk and squirrel footage was captured very shortly after the kits were born and the immediate thought was that one had been taken, so it was with some relief that it was seen to be a squirrel.
Juliet Bailey