Great news this morning in the Guardian, who happily picked up the Devon story. You will like every part of it, so I recommend reading the entire thing yourself. It starts with Dr. Brazier surveying the ‘damage’. Enjoy!
Beavers at work … Devon dwellers reveal their flair for fighting floods
The devastation is part of a scheme that backers hope will provide a template for a more balanced approach to flood prevention. The government is spending £3.2bn on flood management in the course of this parliament. As flood events such as those seen in Cumbria at the end of last year become more common, so attention has turned to flood management, with a call for resources to be allocated not to building flood defences to deal with the water when it arrives downstream but prevent it getting there at all.
The beavers resident on the three hectares of woodland near Okehampton in Devon could be part of the solution. In the five years since they moved there, they have toppled trees, gnawed bark, dug channels, constructed dams and made a rather impressive home for themselves.
“Prior to working with beavers we’d never really come across animals that would disrupt your work so much,” says Brazier, a hydrologist at the University of Exeter, as he surveys the tangle of branches and tree trunks.
But there is hope, too. New shoots are sprouting from the felled willows and a closer inspection reveals that beneath the devastation lies further evidence of new life promoted by the beavers’ work. “They are a keystone species who are obviously engineering the environment to their own benefit,” says Brazier. “But what’s interesting is all the other benefits.”
The Devon project targets three key indicators: water storage, flood attenuation and water quality. The beavers are, they believe, helping in all three. The 13 dams they have built along the 150 metres stretch of water have increased water storage capacity, evened out the flow of water and improved the quality of the water that emerges from the dams.
Oh its good when science evaluates beavers. Because even when the scientists don’t like us the results are ALWAYS our friends. I can’t imagine another incidence of a three hectare study getting reported in the Guardian, but I’m very happy England has had 500 years to get surprised by things they used to see every day. I especially loved this section.
Mark Elliott, who leads the beaver project for the Devon Wildlife Trust, pulls a large stone from the water. On the underside, a small community of grubs and larvae writhe and squirm: they are caddisflies and mayflies. “What’s happened here is transformational,” he says. “You have this incredibly complex mosaic of a transitional, dynamic habitat. There’s now a complex braided stream providing a habitat for orchids, watermint, bog pimpernel, herons, kingfishers, water beetles and damselflies. Five years ago when we started out, we didn’t know where we were going to get.”
They’re called ecosystem engineers for a reason! You could have asked me what you were going to get and I would have told you. But it’s better for the news cycle if you’re surprised and think you’re the first one who discovered this. Well done! There is only one section I enjoyed more – and I’m assuming that’s a valentine gift especially for me.
Perhaps the most common misconception about beavers is that they will eat all the fish in the newly clean rivers, a charge repeated by Labour MP Mary Creagh during a select committee hearing into the government’s response to flooding. It was pointed out that beavers are actually herbivores.
Honestly, go read the whole thing, and send it to your PTA or uncle. It’s worth sharing. And because it’s a very special day, I made us this.
