How beavers can help create fire breaks as part of a drought preparation plan

Most of the countryside around the Holnicote estate in Somerset has been dry and dusty for most of the summer. But one corner remains conspicuously green.

Here in south-west England, an animal that was made extinct in Britain in the 16th century, mostly because of hunting, is making a comeback. Reintroduced just six years ago, beavers have helped turn a small watercourse on the estate into a wet meadow – a true oasis amid the parched landscape.

It is an Instagram-worthy example…

© La Conversation - lundi 7 septembre 2026