A Rewilding Britain Landscape

The garden shows a rewilding landscape in South West England, after the reintroduction of a native, keystone species – the beaver.

A brook flows beneath a glade of hawthorn, hazel and field maple and through a winding old West Country stone wall. Below is a pool dammed by beavers and the beaver’s lodge, built around a large crack willow. Evidence of their food and dam supplies – wood-sticks, woodchip and tree debris – are scattered around. Rivulets of water trickle through the dam and spread out across a riparian meadow through rejuvenating alder trees.

An old timber walkway, inspired by the Neolithic Sweet Track from the Somerset Levels, leads across the wetland meadow to a viewing hide at the side of the pool. Native wildflowers mingle with grasses in the varied planting zones, while marginal plants throng the edges of the pool and stream.

The garden reflects the amazingly rich landscape that evolves when nature’s eco-engineers, such as beavers, are able to flourish.