BEAVERS ARE A DAM FOOL INTRODUCTION
“Yep, they chewed trees and dropped them into rivers”
IT SEEMS that there’s another new ‘introduction’ on the horizon. Beavers. They were reintroduced to Scotland under a pilot scheme a few years ago, and guess what they did?
Yep, they chewed through trees and dropped them into rivers. Then they were reintroduced into the Otter Valley in Devon where, incredibly, they chewed through trees and dropped them into rivers.
The result? Damage to trees, riverbanks and a slower moving river. Environmentalists (actually, the Beaver
Trust, which clearly has an open-minded and balanced approach...) says they will enhance habitat, and that studies showed that fish populations increased in areas repopulated by beavers. Mainly minnows, as it happens!
Stillwaters are a fantastic habitat for our furry vegetarian pals too, so fishery managers and landowners better look out. Rectifying the damage they cause all comes at a cost, but I dare say that a full, unbiased ecological impact survey will no doubt be carried out by ‘the experts’, at great expense, with the likely conclusion that there will be no issues.
We’ve had enough introductions in the past that have been carried out without full and proper analysis. The EA is currently talking about removing dams and obstructions to fish migrations on rivers… not helping more get built. Public money needs to be spent sensibly but I do wonder if, within Government, the left hand currently knows what the right hand is doing.