Schoolchildren name the first beavers in Hampshire for 400 years at Ewhurst Park estate
Schoolchildren who chose the names of the first beavers to be reintroduced into Hampshire after 400 years took part in a special education day last week to learn about the important animals.
Two beavers were released at Ewhurst Park, located south of Tadley, in January as part of the 925-acre estate’s large-scale biodiversity project that aims to regenerate landscape, reduce habitat loss and protect native species.
As part of the release, 18 Hampshire schools were invited to take part in a naming competition, with the winning entries of ‘Hazel’ and ‘Chompy’ being submitted by Southampton’s Mount Pleasant Junior School and Whitchurch Primary School.
On Wednesday, March 22, pupils from both schools visited Ewhurst, went into the beaver enclosure and took part in a tree planting session.
The biodiversity project that the beaver release is part of was spearheaded by Ewhurst’s owner, the Malaysian-born environmentalist, entrepreneur and former model Mandy Lieu after she bought the estate in 2020.
She said: “It has been a very rewarding journey learning about what beavers need, how they will impact the environment around them and the benefits that they will bring to other animals and plants.
“As a keystone species, they play an important role in increasing bio-diversity. Their dams create wetlands in which insects and plants can thrive, which attracts a range of other animals for birds to voles.
“Their activity reduces water pollution and has been shown to prevent flooding too.
“I’m so grateful to my friends and neighbours and in particular local children, who are on this journey with me. It makes perfect sense that the naming should be done by local schoolchildren.”
She also thanked Rosemary Mayfield, whose family owned Ewhurst Park from 1950-2008, CEO of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust Debbie Tan, Rob Needham of the Beaver Trust and North Wessex Downs AONB farming in protected landscapes officer Rob West, for assisting her in judging the naming competition.
Mr West said: “The beavers being released at Ewhurst Park will be the first seen in the North Wessex Downs for hundreds of years.
“The North Wessex Downs AONB Partnership is delighted to be supporting the team at Ewhurst Park as they make a difference through proactive nature restoration and public engagement.
“It is fantastic to have so many schools across Hampshire engaged with this project through the beaver naming competition which I hope will inspire them to take an increased interest in nature and the landscape.”
Ms Lieu worked with a team of experts to ready the land for the beavers, animals she described as “nature’s landscape architects”, and built a five-acre enclosure to keep them in one area of the estate that the schoolchildren explored last week.
Unfortunately, the mostly nocturnal creatures didn’t make an appearance on Wednesday, but the children did manage to get a look at their natural habitat and the chewed up trees the animals had gnawed for food.
Ms Lieu, along with the Malaysian High Commissioner to London Dato’ Zakri Jaafar, presented the schoolchildren with beaver badges, brownies and colouring pencils as a thank you for taking part in the competition.
Ms Lieu also presented the two primary school groups with certificates and trees to plant somewhere on school grounds as a memento of their day at Ewhurst.
