 Beavers create natural landscapes by felling of trees, building dams and digging in river banks.
Felling trees create open patches of different sizes in the riparian forest which can change the forest structure, composition and vegetation. By creating standing and fallen dead wood and by changing the riparian overshadow this has advantageous affects on invertebrate and plant life.
Burrow excavation can create water diversion, meanders and low water zones.
The creation of beaver ponds can flood adjacent land and change ground water level.
 Sponge complexes of bogs, pools, lakes and wet meadows are all common features of beaver generated landscapes. Beaver activity can slow and retain water allowing it to percolate at leisure down to the lowlands below.
Recent studies in Keriou, France conservatively suggest that the retention of water in a single channel of 1025 meters in length rose from a capacity of 515.5 meters cubed to 3230.85 when it was dammed continuously by beavers. It is therefore highly likely that the labour of this species in the uplands of Britain would result in a sustainable improvement in our own living circumstance.
As the value of upland agricultural production declines radically there would be a good case to put for landowners being paid to manage beavers.
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