As reported by Ripley's, March 17 marked the return of the beaver at Enfield’s Forty Hall Farm, two years after Enfield Council and London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP) nailed down a plan to help alleviate major flash flooding that has pained the city in recent years.

Though generally known as a rainy city, London’s downpours have gone from gloomy to grim, with LCCP’s deputy chair Bob Ward expressing concern that the city’s flood risk has turned life-threatening.

According to a July 2021 report, the city experienced more than the total month’s average rain on several individual days. Along with flooding more than 1,000 homes, the influx of water forced hospital and train station closures.

“There is now a real risk of people drowning, particularly in basement flats if a major flash flood occurred in the middle of the night,” Ward told The Observer.

But the beavers are coming to their rescue.

Despite their ancestors being hunted to near-extinction for their coats and musk during the days of Billy Shakespeare, two chosen beavers — a male from a similar project in Yorkshire and a wild Scottish female, temporarily named Justin Beaver and Sigourney Beaver — have made a comeback as the key to the city’s plan to mitigate the flooding.

We’re not sure how Hailey will feel about this, but the Council hopes Sigourney and Justin will immediately get to work making beaver babies who can help them build an empire of dams, chomp down trees, and bring some new wildlife neighbours to the area.

If all goes as planned, these new habitats will ultimately slow down and filter the wetland waters, reducing flooding downstream. 

See how beavers help the environment .