Healthy, living rivers sustain people and nature. By removing dams, reflooding wetlands, reversing channelisation, and releasing wildlife, Rewilding Europe and its partners are revitalising rivers in rewilding landscapes across the continent.

In September, the Rewilding Sweden team organised a helicopter drop of 150 tonnes of sand and gravel into the Abramsån River. We caught up with a Norwegian PhD student involved with monitoring the impact of this pioneering intervention to find out why.

Inviting widespread public support, the objective of the campaign is to keep the EU’s Water Framework Directive as rigorous as possible. With many EU member states failing to meet the targets of the directive, rewilding can help to improve the health of European water ecosystems and guarantee sustainable supplies of freshwater.