Bringing Back the Beaver

‘Gow reinvents what it means to be a guardian of the countryside.’—Guardian

‘This authentic, impassioned manifesto-cum-memoir will hopefully have a major impact on what is likely to be a long-running controversy.’—The Spectator

‘Gow has a fire in his belly. We need more like him.’—BBC Wildlife Magazine

A Waterstones Best Nature Writing Book of 2020

‘Bringing Back the Beaver is a hilarious, eccentric and magnificent account of a struggle . . . to reintroduce a species crucial to the health of our ecosystems.’—George Monbiot

Bringing Back the Beaver is farmer-turned-ecologist Derek Gow’s inspirational and often riotously funny first-hand account of how the movement to rewild beavers into the British landscape became the single most dramatic and subversive nature conservation act of the modern era. Since the early 1990s – in the face of outright opposition from government, landowning elites and even some conservation professionals – Gow has imported, quarantined and assisted the reestablishment of beavers in waterways across England and Scotland.

With a foreword by bestselling author of Wilding, Isabella Tree, Bringing Back the Beaver makes a passionate case as to why the return of one of nature’s great problem solvers will be critical as part of a sustainable fix for the UK’s growing flooding problems, whilst ensuring the creation of essential landscapes that enable the broadest spectrum of Britain’s wildlife to thrive. 

‘It is wonderful to see that beavers are now officially back on the list of native species, having been absent for so long . . . far too long!’—Dame Judi Dench