Beavers, eagles and drinkable rivers: The plan to transform nature in Reading

REVEALED: Berkshire's ambitious strategy to fill the future with extraordinary wildlife - and the battle ahead

A future with beavers, eagles and crystal-clear rivers sounds like a dream. But Berkshire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy sets out a plan to transform wildlife and the natural world around Reading – from rivers and wetlands to farmland and the habitats that were once rich with biodiversity.

(This is an edited extract from a story originally published by The Reading Reporter. The full version is available on Substack.)

Imagine a chalk stream at the height of an English summer. Its banks are lined thick with reeds and trees. Dappled sunlight lands on the crystal-clear waters. The surface ripples from a flash of blue – a kingfisher catching a snack. You bend then drink a cupped handful of cool, fresh water.

This, would you believe, is the River Kennet in south Reading.

Now imagine a field of long, flowing grasses, green and gold blowing in the breeze, flecked with a kaleidoscope of colourful wildflowers. There is an extraordinary, constant buzzing from the huge number of insects in the grass.

This is a field in west Reading.

Finally, imagine a riverbank. You think you spot a dog, but it’s not – it’s a rodent, about a metre long, gnawing on willow bark. Its brown fur glistens damp, and its large, flat tail slaps the water.

This is a beaver in the Thames, just outside of Reading.

And this is all the vision painted by Rosie Street, the co-author of Berkshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) – a plan to restore the county’s remarkable natural biodiversity, and one branch of a national effort to rewild parts of England.

You struggled to imagine all of that in Reading, right?

There’s a reason why we can’t imagine it, though Street says it is all very possible. It’s the “shifting baselines phenomenon” – in plain English, that means we have lost so much of the flora and fauna native to Reading over the past few hundred years that we now can’t imagine such creatures and habitats existing here.

Once upon a time they did, and Street wants us to realise that nature can thrive here once again – and inspire us to get off our backsides and make it happen.

Want to know how to make this dream possible?

Read the full story for free on Substack, where I reveal the bold strategy to transform wildlife in Berkshire... and how you can help. You'll find many more stories like this about Reading too. 

Read more: The plan to bring beavers, eagles and crystal-clear rivers to Reading

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See you there,

Chris (The Reading Reporter)