Please note that the Beaver Considerations Assessment Toolkit (BCAT) is intended to act as a guide and not a decision-making tool, it should be used alongside expert judgement, site-specific knowledge, and the scientific literature. It should not be, and is not, used as the sole basis for making decisions on any beaver reintroduction proposals.
The BCAT is a mapping tool developed by Natural England in collaboration with the Environment Agency. It has been developed to assist our understanding of the potential effects and suitability of reintroducing beavers to different watercourses or waterbodies across England, as well as the potential effects of existing wild populations.
The BCAT is openly accessible for anyone to use, alongside the guidance and demonstrations. It is hosted on ArcGIS Online but does not require you to have an ArcGIS account to use it.
It might be of interest to those who are part of a wild release project, catchment-based partnership, beaver management group, or beaver advisory group, as well as wildlife charities, environmental NGOs, landowners, farmers, educational organisations, and citizen science groups working on reintroductions or monitoring beavers.
The toolkit includes several spatial data layers for environmental and socio-economic factors that may be affected by beaver activity (“considerations”). A list of potential considerations that might be affected by beaver activity was drawn out from the Natural England Evidence Review and fine-tuned through workshops and discussions with Natural England, Environment Agency colleagues, and other experts. These spatial data layers are available at a national scale (England-wide) and have been grouped into five categories: designated sites, habitat and species, hydrology, infrastructure, and land use. Some examples of these considerations include urban areas, agricultural land, designated sites, national grid structures, flood infrastructure, ancient woodland, and many more!
You can draw custom areas of interest in England, to identify considerations present within the area, which can also be visualised on the map and exported for further investigation. The BCAT does not indicate whether the flagged considerations are positive or negative. Users must, instead, apply technical expertise and local knowledge to determine whether these require further investigation. Pie chart summaries of the Beaver Dam Capacity (BDC) and Beaver Foraging Index (BFI) for each custom-drawn area of interest are provided. Beyond this, you can also explore elevation profiles across England to better understand the surrounding areas that might be affected by beaver reintroductions.
The BCAT draws upon live data layers, please see the metadata tables within the associated guidance for more detail. Some of these layers are not regularly updated at the source meaning the BCAT may offer a snapshot in time and does not account for future changes like beaver dispersal or shifting habitats. While the BCAT does include a broad range of data layers to support decision-making, it does not cover all possible considerations. Some suggested data layers have been excluded due to optimal performance of the BCAT, limited relevance, lack of national scale data, or lack of a publicly available data layer. Excluded layers and their sources are noted within a metadata table within the guidance for reference. Data layers within the BCAT are from a range of sources and all come with their own limitations. Detailed limitations for each data layer can be found within the corresponding metadata tables of the guidance.
A comprehensive guidance is available below, as well as video demonstrations on how to use the BCAT. The guidance provides a step-by-step user guide with images and detailed information on each data layer, while the videos offer both a short overview and a more in-depth walkthrough of the toolkit.
For further support, please contact beavers@naturalengland.org.uk.
Respect the open water environment and its ecological importance. Check your equipment is clean, dry and free from invasive plants or animals when visiting new sites. We would recommend using the biosecurity procedures outlined in the Check Clean Dry campaign. Be mindful of the impact your activities might have on the aquatic ecosystem and aim to work in a way that preserves the natural balance, protecting these vital water sources and their inhabitants for future generations.
This website has been designed to support communities and land managers living alongside beavers in Britain. It is also a useful source of relevant information on Beaver Advisory/Management Groups in river catchments where wild beavers are becoming established. It has been designed by Devon Wildlife Trust and Beaver Trust.
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