Beavers in England

Recently I posted an essay on the reintroduction of Beavers into Scotland. While trying to access the data learnt about the impacts upon the environment of this, I learnt that in England for the last two and half years there have been Beavers living here. While they have been fenced in, the sixteen European Beavers from Bavaria, so like our Royal family they are German, have been living happily and without damaging the environment. In fact the improvements the Beavers made to the habitat has provided homes and habitat for thirty other endangered species. This was all unexpected.

Any reintroduction programme always faces opposition from some groups, therefore this test site was used so that we could learn what the impact would be upon the environment and more importantly the biodiversity. Thus on a five hundred and fifty acre fenced in site, the beavers were released.

As beavers will do they adjusted the landscape to provide themselves with the pools and lodges they need to live. The first aspect of their natural behaviour that was noted was by cutting down the trees around the pools on the site, it regenerated the vegetation. Wild flower seeds in the seed bank spontaneously germinated. Some were plants that were thought lost to the site, and this had the additional effect of enabling invertebrates to come in and the population of water voles, a species in serious decline in the UK, started to increase. There were also unexpected benefits for fish as the Beaver lagoons created habitat that allowed fish to breed.

The aspect that really surprised everyone involved was that during flood events, the way that these mammals had managed the watercourse greatly slowed the flow of water helping to lessen the effects of the flooding.

While I dare say there will be people that are still not convinced by the wisdom of reintroducing these animals, all I have seen thus far is a genuine win win situation. I am hoping that I will be able to take up the invitation to go and visit the site myself and get my own view of an English Beaver.