Overhunting reduced Eurasian beaver Castor fiber populations to c. 1200 animals, in eight isolated populations, around the end of the 19 th Century. Protection, natural spread, and reintroductions led to a powerful recovery in both range and populations during the 20 th Century, which continues at a rapid pace. The minimum current population estimate is 465000. There are also c. 12500 North American beaver C. canadensis established in Finland and Russian Karelia; however, other populations of canadensis introduced in Austria, Poland and France appear to be extinct. Populations are now established throughout Europe with the exception of the British Isles, Iberia, Italy, and the southern Balkans; reintroductions are continuing. Considerable further expansion in range and population, especially in western Europe and the lower Danube basin, can be expected. If current trends continue, C. fiber will within a few decades be a fairly common mammal in most of Europe. Expanding populations typically show a pattern of rapid range extension within a watershed, followed only later by rapid population growth; and a barrier effect of watershed divides, which can be strongly isolating where physical or habitat barriers (such as mountains or intensive farmland) intrude between watersheds. Management of beaver distribution should therefore operate at the watershed scale. The period of rapid population increase, if unchecked, leads to a phase of population decline as marginal habitats are occupied and exhausted. This coincides with a peak in conflicts with human landuse interests. A regulated hunting take of healthy beaver populations is recommended as the optimal management regime in managed landscapes. Early provision of interpretation and public viewing opportunities has been a feature of several recent reintroductions. This provides a benefit to the local economy through wildlife tourism, and helps foster positive attitudes to beavers.

A century ago, overhunting had reduced Eurasian beaver Castor fiber populations to c. 1200 animals in scattered refugia from France to Mongolia. Reintroductions and natural spread have since restored the species to large areas of its original range. Population has more than tripled since the first modern estimate in 1998; the minimum estimate is now c. 1.5 million. Range expansion 2000–2020 has been rapid, with large extensions in western and south‐central Europe, southern Russia, and west and central Siberia. Beavers are now re‐established in all countries of their former European range except for Portugal, Italy, and the southern Balkans; they occur broadly across Siberia to Mongolia, with scattered populations father east. About half of the world population lives in Russia. Populations appear to be mature in much of European Russia, Belarus, the Baltic States, and Poland. There is a significant population of North American beaver Castor canadensis in Finland and north‐west Russia. Most other 20th‐Century introductions of this species have become extinct or been removed. Recent DNA studies have improved understanding of Castor fiber population prehistory and history. Two clades, east and west, are extant; a third ‘Danube’ clade is extinct. Refugial populations were strongly bottlenecked, with loss of genetic diversity through genetic drift. Future range extension, and large increases in populations and in impacts on freshwater systems, can be expected. Beavers are now recolonising densely populated, intensely modified, low‐relief regions, such as England, the Netherlands, Belgium, and north‐west Germany. They will become much more common and widespread there in coming decades. As beavers are ecosystem engineers with profound effects on riparian habitats, attention to integrating beaver management into these landscapes using experience gained in other areas – before the rapid increase in population densities and impacts occurs – is recommended.

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We present the results of a process to attempt to identify 100 questions that, if answered, would make a substantial difference to terrestrial and marine landscape restoration in Europe. Representatives from a wide range of European governmental and nongovernmental conservation organizations, universities, independent ecologists and land managers compiled 677 questions relating to all aspects of European landscape restoration for nature and people. The questions were shortlisted by an email vote, followed by a twoday workshop, to produce the final list of 100 questions. Many of the final questions evolved through a process of modification and combination as the workshop progressed. The questions are divided into eight sections: conservation of biodiversity; connectivity, migration and translocations; delivering and evaluating restoration; natural processes; ecosystem services; social and cultural aspects of restoration; policy and governance; and economics. We anticipate that these questions will help identify new directions for researchers and policy-makers and assist funders and programme managers in allocating funds and planning projects, resulting in improved understanding and implementation of landscape-scale ecological restoration in Europe.

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