Animals and plants influence geomorphological processes across multiple scales, from sediment grains to landscapes, with important implications for environmental resilience, restoration and hazards. Such ‘ecosystem engineer’ species can generate potential for working with natural processes to restore degraded environments. For example, reintroducing missing ecosystem engineers can enhance and accelerate environmental restoration, potentially reducing the need for direct intervention and hence costs. In contrast, invasive non-native species can represent a system disturbance, and cause or contribute to environmental hazards. This seminar will use examples from my current and recent research on burrowing animals, instream wood jams and landscape rewilding to explore the diverse effects of ecosystem engineers and the opportunities and challenges they present for environmental management and restoration.