Now that’s what I call a good beaver news day! Sunday Times, Yahoo, Huffington Post and Politico. All with headlines about how beavers help the environment. I’m pretty ambitious, and am reminded of a very old joke that went something like this

“What do you call 50 politicians at the bottom of the ocean?”

“A good START,”

If all this news follows the decision to reintroduce a single family of beaver back into the Forest Dean, I can only hope the success is trickled out over decades city by city, farm by farm so that we have this news cycle every month. Don’t rush into anything England. We in the beaver community want this to last a good long time!

Beavers returned to Forest of Dean as solution to flooding

Beavers are to return to the Forest of Dean after an absence of 400 years under a plan to use their dam-building abilities to reduce flood risk. Michael Gove, the environment secretary, has approved plans to release a family of two adult beavers and two kits into a 16-acre enclosure on Greathough Brook near the village of Lydbrook in the spring.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that many more beavers could be reintroduced in other areas. It is publishing guidance today to help organisations to make applications for “further trial releases across England”.

Scientists have said that the beavers could help to protect Lydbrook in a “nature-based solution” to the flooding. In 2012 Lydbrook’s town centre was flooded up to 4ft deep, despite being almost half a mile from the River Wye.

A pair released a few years ago into a stream in Devon built 13 dams that increased the amount of water stored behind them by more than 200,000 gallons. Beavers build dams to create ponds in which they feel safe from predators.

This is not only great news for beavers, its pretty dam good news for science. Researchers at Exeter studied the issue closely, published their findings and the right people listened. How often does that happen honestly? Imagine how proud you would be if you were the grad student working on this research!

Derek Gow, a beaver expert who has worked on other reintroduction trials, said that water took ten times longer to flow through beaver-generated wetlands than in rivers and streams without them. “Beaver-generated environments therefore not only regulate flows reducing flood peaks but also function as storage facilities for water, which can also assist in the alleviation of drought,” he said.

They also help to restore other wildlife, including insects and amphibians, by creating new wetland habitat, he added. “Reintroducing the beaver is therefore a very good idea from an ecological perspective at a time when many studies demonstrate life in intensively farmed western European landscapes dissipating at a bewildering speed.”

Wonderful Derek! This is a great day for beavers, and your work on their behalf has done good in places you might not even consider. Headlines are still pouring into my mailbox as I type this. I know we’re supposed to root for the final decision to be made, like waking up on Christmas morning with everything glistening and in place – but eeking it out is sooo good.

Let’s stay ‘Beaver Eve” for ever, okay?