02/09/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1KnJhR7BHm/
For years, the ticket office at Greenford Tube station in West London had the same recurring problem, because every time heavy rain came, water poured in and flooded it. The usual fix would have meant more drains, more concrete, more pipework laid into crowded ground. In 2023, the Ealing Beaver Project released a family of beavers into a green space about 100 meters behind a McDonald's, the first beavers in the area for 400 years.
Beavers were hunted to extinction across Britain centuries ago for their fur, meat, and scent glands, but they are some of the most effective flood engineers in nature. In their first year the Greenford colony built seven dams and reshaped the local waterways, holding rainwater back in ponds and wetlands instead of letting it rush downstream after every storm. Project staff say the station has not flooded once since, and the new wetlands have drawn in rare birds, bats, and a scarce butterfly.
