Videos on the campaigns of The Wildlife Trusts. Watch and listen to see what we are currently campaigning for.

The practical conservation work groups carry out essential habitat management tasks for the benefit of local wildlife. Tasks are usually dependent on the season, but most include coppicing, scrub clearance and fencing or walling in the winter and grassland management, some surveying and path maintenance during spring and summer.

For hundreds of years, the furry, paddle-tailed figure of the Eurasian beaver has been missing from the rivers of the UK. Once widespread, they were hunted to extinction for their fur, meat and scent-glands (used for making perfume). The last wild British beaver died in Scotland in the 16th century.

Beavers are a keystone species which means that they play a crucial role in how an ecosystem functions. By building dams, digging ditches and coppicing trees, beavers can alter their surroundings in a big way – and in a way that has many benefits for people and wildlife. Beavers can create large areas of water-retaining wetland, slowing the flow of streams and rivers and protecting the land downriver from flooding, as well as reducing silt and improving water quality. These restored wetlands also provide essential habitat for a wealth of plants and animals.

With these benefits, it’s easy to see why there is so much interest in bringing beavers back to the UK.

Things have changed rapidly and dramatically. As we start to consider life after lockdown, we have a unique opportunity to reimagine society, and the Trust has a chance to influence this. We need your thoughts on what a different world could look like.