I know we’re all focused on the national election today, but it’s a good idea to take a broader view and think about what’s happening beyond our unwalled borders. Beavers are in the BBC again. That’s happened enough lately that I’m starting to wonder if he initials stand for “British Beaver Conservation“.

Beavers return to Essex after 400 years to stop floods

A breeding pair of Eurasian beavers will be rehomed at Spains Hall Estate, near Finchingfield, Braintree, to help flood prevention.

The animals will have a four-hectare territory fenced off to keep them safe.

Beavers have not been seen in the county for four centuries but have been reintroduced in other parts of the country. The Environment Agency hopes the dam-making mammals will increase biodiversity in the area as well as control the flow of water.

A second element of the project will involve man-made flood management measures. The Environment Agency’s Matt Butcher said: “The beavers bring another exciting dimension, as we can assess how effective they are at creating amazing new wetlands and as flood engineers.”

Spains Hall owner Archie Ruggles-Brise said he was excited to welcome the beavers to the estate, home to his family for 250 years. He said: “We have experienced first-hand the disruption caused by flooding in Finchingfield so we are excited to be able to contribute to this novel approach to reducing flood risk, an undeniable public good.

We first read about Archie’s plan back in April of this year and I said I was so impressed I said I wasn’t even going to make fun of his name (which still sounds made up.) It’s kind of amazing the whole thing is getting off the ground so quickly! What a smart thing to use those massive grounds for. The estate was listed in the doomsday book and deserves to be on the forefront of beaver reintroduction. Congratulations, Archie!

Meanwhile, 300 miles away some other beavers are getting themselves talked about as well. This time for their resplendent photogenics.

Stunning Devon nature photos, including beaver and kits, highlight our wildlife

A stunning photo of a mother beaver and her kits in a Devon river has been highly commended in this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards.

The image capture the recently reintroduced animals enjoying their willow bark supper. It was taken by acclaimed wildlife photographer Matthew Maran, who had been lying in wait along the grassy banks of the River Otter near Budleigh Salterton to capture the behaviour of the beavers for a wildlife prospectus commissioned by landowner Clinton Devon Estates.

That’s surely a great photo, although I wouldn’t call it “stunning”. It takes a lot to “stun” Martinez, who saw things like this every morning most days for nearly a decade. In fact the warehouse where all the county’s ballots are counted was right beside the creek where our beavers lived. I remember one night in particular, when ballot officials, reporters, and county workers were all gathered around the spot lit cement building where the votes are tallied, one exhausted official stepped outside for a cigarette on the creek bank.

Which our original mom beaver just happened to be climbing up for a particular white flower she had grown fond of eating. Let’s just say they were BOTH surprised! Democracy and beavers!

Now that mom posed for some stunning photos.

Sigh.

And finally some encouragement, posted on FB by reader Sheri Hartstein. Because beavers know that just because things are difficult doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do them.

From our friends at Beaver believers:

And now in honor of our favorite new meme:

Natural dam builders munch above their weight

Beavers are set to play a key role in water and flood management on an Essex estate. Judith Tooth reports. Beavers are famously good dam builders. Absent from this country for at least 400 years, though, we don’t have first hand experience of their skills.

Essex landowner Archie Ruggles-Brise is hoping to change that and demonstrate that reintroduction of the Eurasian beaver is a viable ecosystem service model. In other words, it will provide cleaner water, enhance biodiversity and reduce the risk of flooding.

Natural capital – environmental assets such as soil, clean air and clean water – and water management are particular interests of Archie’s. A biology graduate from Newcastle University, and now a part-time masters student in rural estate and land management at Harper Adams, he worked for Northumbrian Water on technical water and sewerage treatment projects.

Through the Rivers Trust, Archie is also involved with the EU project Topsoil, which is tracking sediment flows from Layer Brook to Abberton reservoir, and looking at managed aquifer recharge – putting water back into rivers – in the Suffolk Sandlings.

At home on the Spains Hall Estate, Archie is planning a series of leaky dams – piles of logs in ditches – that push water on to the surrounding land, in this case, 5ha grassland on the Spains Hall Estate above the village of Finchingfield, turning it into a temporary flood storage area. When the water spreads, it slows and any sediment drops out of it.

Water quality monitoring equipment, funded by the Environment Agency, has just been installed at two sites, collecting data on water temperature, which relates to dissolved oxygen; conductivity, giving a measure of salts; turbidity, which shows how much sediment and, therefore, how much phosphate, is being carried, and, finally, ammonium. The aim is to compare results over three months this year with the same period next year.

Now he’s seeking permission from Natural England to fence an area of wet woodland upstream of Finchingfield in which to release a pair of beavers, so that they can build the dams for him.

Good for Archie. Have fun trying out beavers in Essex! We’re so impressed I won’t even make fun of your name, (which sounds a bit made up by someone who wanted to tease the British). The 7 hectare grounds at Spains hall were listed in the Doomsday book and owned by just three families since 1066. There was some talk of putting it on the market in 2016 but I guess he decided against it. Better to try his hand at wedding rentals and ecotourism first.

Something tells me the beavers will do their part.