River rewilding — removing barriers, restoring floodplains, and reintroducing beavers — creates the conditions for fish population and welfare recovery.
River rewilding improves fish welfare through habitat restoration that reduces the chronic stressors caused by degraded rivers. Thermal stress from bare, unshaded channels; food stress from impoverished invertebrate communities; and population bottlenecks from fragmented rivers all cause ongoing welfare impacts on fish populations. Beaver-mediated river complexity creates diverse habitat structures — deep pools, shallow runs, woody debris habitats — that allow fish to thermoregulate, shelter from predators, and access abundant invertebrate food.