In general I tend not to post UK articles about beavers in England anymore. They have their own steam engine of advocates and I am trying to focus on our waters at the moment. But this article hit all the right notes and I thought I’d share.
Beavers are saving the ‘most photographed village in England’. Here’s how
Five years after being released on an estate in Essex, beavers are reducing the risks of both drought and flooding in the nearby village of Finchingfield, suggests a new study.
In an East Anglian woodland flanked by agriculture, an engineering project is taking place for the first time in centuries. A beaver packs mud into a dam across Finchingfield Brook, and the human residents of a pretty Essex village not far downstream benefit from its behaviour.
Beavers were reintroduced to the Spains Hall Estate in 2019 under licence from Natural England as part of a natural flood management project developed between the estate and the Environment Agency.
New evidence from Spains Hall Estate suggests that this unorthodox approach to flood risk can work. The nine dams that the reintroduced beavers – now numbering 11 – have built are storing an estimated three million litres of stormwater, slowing the flow and softening sudden outbursts downstream.
I just love how there is always a team of researchers standing by to measure things after a beaver reintroduction in England. I wish we had had this in Martinez.
Apart from the potential benefits to people, wildlife as diverse as invertebrates, kingfishers and bats thrive in the new wetland habitat. Beavers open up the canopy as they fell trees, providing niches for shade-intolerant plants.
Their impact in the wider British landscape is not completely free from controversy, however; agricultural land can be flooded and anglers express concerns about trout and salmon being unable to migrate past dams. However, recent research has suggested that beaver ponds can provide important trout habitat.
Recent as in the 1970’s? Apparently research has to be conducted in their own front yard and on their own fish before it can be verified. Because you know. Fish in the UK are just different.
Archie Ruggles-Brise, Spains Hall Estate Manager, comments: “We took a chance five years ago that bringing beavers back would be beneficial, and it’s proven to be better than we could ever have imagined.
Archie Ruggles-Brise of course had to take this job because he was unanimously voted as having the most ENGLISH SOUNDING NAME EVER. I can barely top myself from drinking tea from a thermos in the gardens while I type this.
A rose by other name though. We like him.
“Locally there is widespread support for the beavers and their work, with the community really taking them to their heart.
Of course. You expected something different?
