Once upon a time I lived in Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/24/beavers-forest-dean-possible-flooding-solution
Beavers released in Forest of Dean as solution to flooding
Hope is that dams built by pair of beavers will hold back water and improve biodiversity
Four hundred years after the beaver was hunted to extinction in the UK, two of the mammals have been reintroduced on government land in an English forest as part of a scheme to assess whether they could be a solution to flooding.
Two Eurasian beavers were released on Tuesday into their new lodge within a large penned-off section of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The hope is that the animals will build dams and create ponds on Greathough Brook, which feeds into the River Wye, and slow the flow of water through the steep-sided, wooded valley at times of torrential rainfall.
In 2012 the villages of Lydbrook and Upper Lydbrook were badly flooded. Hundreds of thousands of pounds on conventional schemes such as replacing drains to try to keep the communities dry and safe.
The government hopes that introducing the beavers into a 6.5-hectare (16-acre) enclosure on Forestry Commission land will help hold back the waters in a more natural way and improve biodiversity.
Should the three-year scheme prove successful, beavers could be introduced in other areas susceptible to flooding.
I wouldn't get my hopes up.
Europeans and their so called "rewilding" projects are basically industrial scams with no chance at all.
A form of denial imho.
Beavers were brought back to Netherlands as well, much pride and hullabaloo involved.
How useful they are...
Problem was they didn't stay in the places we wanted them to be for wildlife photographers to make pretty pictures alone.
The cheeky buggers actually sabotaged a road somewhat and so of course the hunters were the first to say "Ah we must shoot beavers!".
The politicians holding their hand.
It is the same with any species really, industrial society leaves no room but symbolic presence of wildlife to serve denial.
Otters, eagles, insects or whatever...wolves are walking around now.
They have no chance at all but for a miserable existence at best.
Sounds harsh but i speak from experience.
Even the badgers here are hailed as a wonderful story of success.
I pick up their bodies and find only ruined den sites.
When they are forced to move elsewhere again and get noticed people say:
"See! they are spreading in numbers thanks to our great work!"
They are actually being wiped out just as anything else is.
Bit different from the beaver situation over there you describe but fundamentally the same.
People are already expecting those guys to serve some sort of hydrological goal?
Pardon my French but that sounds like bullshit to me.
Leave it alone we say here and nothing else...i hope those beavers do well.