Beaver Britannia - Shortlisted for Earth Photo 2025 at the Royal Geographical Society
I was really thrilled to get into Earth Photo 2025. Last time I was shortlisted was 2020 and Covid put a big dampener on it, the exhibition was never hung and the award ceremony was cancelled, so it’s doubly special to have got in again.
This project titled ‘Beaver Britannia’ is the story of landscape and biodiversity change local to me on a local re-wilding site in Somerset. Beavers were released here about 8 years ago and their impact is starting to show. This is a very long term project started 2023.
Beavers are dam makers, reshaping and re/wetting the landscape they reside within. It’s expected they will increase the UK’s bio-diversity, re-establish wetlands, and help with flood-water management. I am recording the change on a 400-acre rewilding project in Somerset.
I will use the drone to record the changes in the water table and ground imagery to study the biodiversity in the location. Not forgetting - the sound-scapes I’m capturing and I was very excited to hear the return of the Cuckoo recently after decades of its absence here.
I hope you get to see the exhibition it’s packed with amazing imagery and stories.
Accompanying text:
The spread of Eurasian Beavers after a 400-year hiatus in the UK is taking hold. With a small number of officially sanctioned, managed, licenced beavers, alongside fairly widespread unofficially released ones. Beavers are dam-makers, reshaping and re/wetting the landscape they reside. They feed on the leaves and bark of trees, it’s expected they will help increase the UK’s bio-diversity, re-establish wetlands, and help with flood-water management.
This is rewilded land outside of Frome in Somerset. Beavers have been established here for around 8 years, and have been busy slowing down the water, creating wetland from young woodland and meadow, likely preventing flooding downstream.
Wetlands support 40% of the worlds plant and animal species, including fish. The UK has lost most of its wetlands, and its rivers are mostly in poor health. Slowing the water down helps the water to self-clean which will benefit the fish and river species in recovery.