Eager beavers re-engineer a city park in England

Hello, Earthlings! This is our weekly newsletter on all things environmental, where we highlight trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday. 

This week:

• Eager beavers re-engineer a city park in England
• The Big Picture: Where Canada's produce comes from
• Packaging producers take over Quebec's recycling system

Eager beavers re-engineer a city park in England

Along the muddy banks of a waterlogged woodland in West London, a mound of sticks and bark-stripped branches rises from a pond against a backdrop of willow trees. 

"This is arguably one of the most urban beaver lodges in Britain," said Sean McCormack, a veterinarian and wildlife conservationist. 

Trucks, buses and cars lumber along a busy road nearby. Some turn into a McDonald's restaurant parking lot. Others veer toward one of the many low-slung distribution centres for groceries, mail or hospital supplies.

The beavers that built the dam — a tight-knit family of five with three daughters — moved in a little more than a year ago. They were relocated from Scotland to Paradise Fields, a 10-hectare public park about a 20-minute Tube ride from downtown London, where they live in an enclosure that's fully accessible to the public. They're part of an effort to re-wild London — and return the furry rodent to the United Kingdom.

The Eurasian beaver, Castor fiber, was prized for its meat, fur and castoreum — a fragrant secretion used in perfumes and to flavour food. They were hunted to extinction in England and Wales roughly 800 years ago, although some hung on in Scotland until the 16th century. Wild beavers were essentially absent from the U.K. until the early 2000s, when a couple dozen animals were found living in the River Tay, in Scotland. Conservationists have been reintroducing beavers at locations across the U.K. ever since. 

Alastair Driver, a rewilding specialist and the former head of conservation for the U.K. Environment Agency, estimates there are now about 2,000 beavers in Scotland and more than 1,000 in England, with smaller numbers in Wales. He was also part of the London Rewilding Task Force that supported the beaver reintroduction. 

"Beavers are brilliant ecosystem engineers and can transform habitats for a huge range of other species," said Driver. "I spent decades of my career rewiggling rivers and installing leaky dams, trying to generally renaturalize rivers," or help them resume their natural, often meandering path.

"Beavers do it for free, one thousand times better than people like me ever did."

Since their arrival in Paradise Fields in October 2023, the beavers have re-shaped their portion of the park. They have built dams, dug channels and selectively cut down trees — willows and birch are their favourites. Their arboreal engineering allows pockets of light to reach parts of the ground below, creating a mosaic of micro-habitats that add variety to the ecosystem, says McCormack, who heads up the Ealing Beaver Project. 

In a short time, their work seems to have helped boost the diversity of aquatic insects and attract at least three new bird species — including kingfishers and the common snipe, a long-billed, stocky wader — several species of bat and a rare butterfly called the brown hairstreak. "The whole place is springing back to life since the beavers arrived," said McCormack.

The beavers have also managed to cushion against the rising risk of flooding that comes with climate change in the City of London. During heavy rainfalls, the brook that runs through Paradise Fields often floods and spills over into the nearby road and shopping mall. Now, by damming the brook, the beavers have increased the surface area of the wetland.

During a recent heavy rainfall, the larger wetland helped slow the release of water and there was less downstream flooding. 

People also benefit, according to both Driver and McCormack. "These urban rewilding projects are just brilliant for connecting people in nature," said Driver. "You've got many more opportunities than in some remote mountain … in the north of England."

Last spring, two kits were born — a first for London for centuries. With the family expanding, McCormack spent several days in January baiting large metal traps with carrots and apples. He had hoped to capture the three-year-old adolescent daughter, who would typically be ready to leave her parents' territory. "We need to help her out on that mission … and bring her to a new project in Wales, where there's a bachelor beaver waiting in the wings," said McCormack. So far, she's eluded him and he's put the mission on hold until the fall. 

When the time comes for the two youngest beavers to head out on their own, McCormack hopes he'll be able to release them into the wild, instead of an enclosure. For now, it's illegal for anyone to release a beaver into the wild in England. "I would say we need beavers back in almost every river catchment in Britain," he said. "We got rid of them, and I think we have a moral duty to bring them back."

— Hannah Hoag

Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here. 

Check out our podcast and radio show. In our newest episode: Meet the people using TikTok to break up with shopping, and learn why they say affordability is propelling them toward more climate-friendly habits, as they take on the social media challenge of a "No Buy" year. And author Aja Barber shares stories of her own shopping addiction, how she "saw the light" and what happens when a "No Buy" year turns into a lifestyle.

What On Earth27:40HOW TO: do a ‘No Buy’ year for your wallet and the planet

What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Have a compelling personal story about climate change you want to share with CBC News? Pitch a First Person column here.

Reader feedback

In response to last week's article on why misinformation spreads during natural disasters, Margareta Karrel wrote: "I get annoyed every time news stories talk about misinformation. That word makes things sound less serious than what they are. If someone knows the truth, but says something other than the truth, they are lying. Lies is the correct word. Stop sugarcoating stories about people who lie."

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines a lie as "an intentionally false statement."  As the article pointed out, there's a difference between misinformation (false info) and disinformation (false info deliberately spread to deceive people — similar to the definition of a lie). In the What On Earth podcast, Chris Russill notes that many people spread misinformation thinking it is true. And both disinformation and misinformation can take many forms, not just what people say. Those are some of the reasons those words are often used instead of "lie." An article by writer Ashley Austrew on Dictionary.com explores this in more detail, but it sounds like she agrees that at least some of the time, "lies" is the correct word. 

Write us at [email protected]. (And feel free to send photos, too!) 

The Big Picture: Where Canada's produce comes from

Two researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed an interactive tool to track the movement of Canada's fruits and vegetables. That could help people who want to understand what's behind rising prices of certain items or who want to buy more Canadian- grown produce.

For example, avocado prices have increased by an average of 80 per cent in Canada. The online tool shows why — sourcing troubles in California, causing almost all avocados to come from Mexico now, even as consumption tripled between 2010 and 2022.

It's also helpful for those who want to buy more Canadian-grown produce.

Kushank Bajaj and Navin Ramankutty are helping people understand the individual challenges, such as rising prices, for 16 fruits and 18 vegetables. Viewers can sort by produce type and year, to see how the food flows both within the country and internationally.

Bajaj says the dataset could be expanded to explore topics like the carbon footprint of food, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, groundwater depletion, biodiversity loss and pollution from farming practices.

— Bridget Stringer-Holden

Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web

• Many people with disabilities can't drive, and rely on devices such as mobility scooters to get around. "Bike and roll" lanes can help keep them safe. So why do people use people with disabilities as an excuse to oppose bike lanes? Officially, only one province allows mobility devices in bike lanes, Eric Doherty writes in the National Observer.

• There's new data showing that thousands of new homes could be built in flood and fire prone areas. But it's not available to the public yet, and researchers say that governments need to step in to protect future homebuyers.

• About 71,000 offices were in the process of being converted into apartments in the U.S. at the beginning of 2025. Here's a closer look at where they are.

• An Indigenous community in Panama has been relocated from its island home, which is sinking and flooding due to rising sea levels. BBC takes a closer look at how the community has been affected, and why some people won't go.

Packaging producers take over Quebec's recycling system

Near the eastern tip of the island, a dump truck backs into Montreal's newest recycling sorting centre and unloads reams of paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, tins — and anything else people have put in their blue bins.

From there, the mass of material is loaded onto conveyor belts, then through a series of optical sorters that use sensors, magnets and blowers to separate the items by type.

Nearly the entire process is automated — only about 20 people help with sorting the material, said Carl D'Astous, director of special projects with Matrec-GFL, which built and operates the facility.

The centre, billed as one of the most technologically advanced in North America, was opened at the start of 2025.

Recycling is changing in Quebec, starting with what you can put in the blue bin — and this new high-tech sorting centre in Montreal's east end. But hurdles remain in getting more of the province's recyclable materials actually recycled. 

The new facility, in an industrial section of Montréal-Est, is designed to process up to 20 per cent of the province's total curbside collection.

It is also intended to produce quality bales of paper, plastic and other materials that will be recycled in Quebec or nearby in Canada or the United States.

In the past, paper bales mixed with plastic, old clothes and pieces of metal were shipped to India and elsewhere, where much of the material ended up in landfills.

As recently as 2021, nearly 40 per cent of recyclables at sorting centres were shipped outside the province.

The centre in Montréal-Est is part of a broader shift in how Quebec's beleaguered recycling system is managed.

As of Jan. 1, the collection, sorting and sale of recyclable material is now managed by Éco Entreprises Québec (EEQ), a non-profit representing producers.

The change was meant to put the onus on the companies that make containers and packaging, said Environment Minister Benoit Charette.

"Before the government was responsible for the regulation, it was also responsible for the application of the regulation. Now it's the producers that have that responsibility," said Charette.

Under the new system, nearly all packaging and containers are permitted in your blue bin — with only three exceptions: aerosol cans, polystyrene packaging and compostable bags.

Maryse Vermette, the head of EEQ, acknowledged that doesn't mean everything at the sorting centre will be recycled, stressing that there will be a "transitional" period.

For instance, the material known as "flexible plastic," which includes things like chip bags and ziplock bags, remains complicated to recycle and is a "challenge everywhere in North America, even in Europe," she said.

EEQ is exploring the possibility of converting these difficult-to-recycle plastics into energy through a chemical process, Vermette said.

She said they had reached an agreement with a local company to use glass in construction materials. Previously, much of Montreal's glass ended up in landfills.

Quebec's change brings it in line with several other provinces, including Ontario and British Columbia, said Karen Wirsig, plastics program manager at the advocacy group Environmental Defence.

The idea is that producers will be compelled to transition toward easier to recycle material to avoid paying a fee for items that are more expensive or difficult to recycle, Wirsig said.

"In general, metal, paper, glass are much more recyclable and recycled in practice," she said.

"Frankly, for plastics, boosting recycling in the short term is not on the table, I think."

Overall, the new facility represents a positive step for recycling in Quebec, said Karel Ménard, a longtime environmental activist and the head of the Quebec Coalition for Ecological Waste Management.

In an ideal world, people would sort their recyclables at home and they would be sent separately to be recycled, he said.

But in his view, the new facility is the next best thing, because the state-of-the-art sorting process will lead to less contamination.

"The value of the material will be higher … so it will help recyclable material to be actually recycled," he said.

Myra Hird, an environmental studies professor at Queen's University, stressed that a reduction in packaging — not improved recycling — should be the ultimate goal.

"The key here is to focus less on recycling and more on product and packaging design to reduce the amount of waste that each produces in the first place."

– Benjamin Shingler

Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to [email protected].

What on Earth? comes straight to your inbox every Thursday. 

Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty