KNOWLEDGE BASE

Citizen science helped identify new beaver populations in southern Italy, where different populations had likely arisen from multiple unauthorised releases. This text brought together the different pieces of evidence of beavers' presence, gathered from across the country. The authors recommended that genetic analysis and monitoring would be necessary to assess future management strategies.

Survey data reveals that water voles, which are critically endangered, are expanding into newly engineered wetlands by beavers. Beaver wetlands could enhance water vole populations by offering habitat and refuge from predators, warranting further investigation as a nature recovery option.

In the 1990s, beavers were reintroduced to the Raifa forest in Russia to help mitigate the impact of silt run-off from agricultural fields in the region, which had been filling in local lakes and decreasing the flow of local rivers. This study sought to examine what impact these beavers' activities had had on local plant life. Researchers observed that beaver activity increased soil moisture, nitrogen, and acidity, all of which changed the plant community, creating more space for local plants from the southern boreal area.

The Eurasian beaver's return to France had not been without conflict. In this experiment, researchers tried to mitigate human-beaver conflict in three different municipalities by drawing on concepts of reconciliation ecology and participatory science. They conducted a public engagement programme which included surveys, public meetings, and questionnaires, and tried to build the idea of humans as being part of the local ecosystem, and beavers as being neighbours, also belonging to the community. The authors recommended the use of their three-stage approach for public engagement in other contexts.

In Hungary, scientists sought to understand how Eurasian beavers affected the growth of woody plants along small rivers. Beavers at these sites preferred willow species with diameters of 5–9 cm. The text discussed how this behaviour may conflict with current strategies for conserving native softwood plants in Hungary and suggested some changes in management that could help mitigate these problems.