This pioneering project focused on conserving a rare and endangered species on the River Torridge. Find out more about the Freshwater Pearl Mussel Project.

Looking at freshwater habitats and what lives in them

Donations to the Rivers of Life appeal will support work to improve river, farmland and woodland habitats for wildlife on the new Northern Devon Natural Solutions project. By helping landowners to protect riverbanks, improve soil health, create wetland habitats, better manage hedges and start 'wilding' areas of land, we can make real improvements to wildlife in our rivers and on the land alongside them - from orchids and butterflies on wet grasslands to declining Atlantic salmon and endangered freshwater pearl mussels in northern Devon's rivers.

Donations to the Beaver Believers appeal will support DWT's beaver conservation work in the three major Devon rivers where beavers are currently found: the Otter, the Tamar and the Taw. With your support we can ensure more local communities can learn to live alongside beavers again, explaining the benefits beavers bring while finding solutions to any conflicts between beaver and human use of the landscape. Donations will also support introductions of further beavers from Scotland, to boost the genetic diversity of the Devon populations, and efforts to encourage beavers to settle in the streams where their activity will have the greatest benefits to water quality, flood and drought mitigation.

Donations to the Return of the Pine Marten appeal will support the Two Moors Pine Marten Project, bringing back this lost native mammal to the woods of Dartmoor and Exmoor. Donations will support the essential ecological surveys and community work required to ensure the safe return of the pine marten before the first releases can be made in 2024. Project partners National Trust, Woodland Trust and Dartmoor and Exmoor National Park Authorities have together pledged £70,000 in funding - but only if DWT can raise at least £20,700 from this appeal. That means every £20 donated is worth almost £90 for pine martens.