All things beavers

Craig and Ruby say, “As a child, between jumping on cow dung and tripping over brambles, long before the word ‘sustainability’ meant anything to me, I often wondered why so much was taken from the land, and very little seemed to be given back.”

Joseph Monkhouse says, “After a while, I grew restless of imagination, I wanted to hear these acoustic environments for real…I combined some self-taught techniques in music production with my ornithological expertise, in an attempt to construct past natural soundscapes that were immersive and believable.”

Lauren Cook says, “With my artist’s beret on, I see this animal as the original Capability Brown landscape artist. Just as his landscapes were designed to be seen from a painter’s viewpoint, the beaver’s aquatic habitat is one I wanted to explore with my paintbrush.”

Jack Perks says, “One of the main concerns of many anglers is that beaver dams pose a physical ‘block’ on rivers and fish migration – preventing this most ancient and fundamental movement. I once had these thoughts.”

Jamie Kingscott-Edmunds says, “Releasing any animal into the wild can be quite a task…there are plenty of long days and sleepless nights before, and after, the final release.”

Mike Blackmore says, “Yes, we know how damaging artificial impoundments are on river ecology. However, to compare concrete weirs to woody dams is to compare chalk to cheese.”