Many happy returns

THE reintroduction of families of Eurasian beavers to five new counties has begun, this month in Dorset. Next up in The Wildlife Trusts’ initiative are Derbyshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Nottinghamshire and Montgomeryshire (a first for Wales), which will make 2021 a record year for beaver releases. The beavers will join cousins already in situ in Kent, Argyll, Devon, Cornwall, Sussex, Cheshire and Cumbria.

Prized for their ability to maintain wetland habitats—benefiting hundreds of insects, fish, amphibians and birds and increasing plant species by up to 50%—these herbivores were hunted to extinction in this country in the 16th century, but staged reintroductions have been afoot for the past 20 years. The improvements these busy creatures and their dams bring about can be dramatic; since 2011, a wildlife paradise has emerged around the River Otter in Devon—valleys have been re-landscaped with ponds brimming with life and a frogspawn survey saw clumps grow from 10 to 681 in six years. Herons, grass snakes, kingfishers, willow tits and rare barbastelle bats also returned as glades became peppered with marsh thistles, watermint and meadowsweet and nearby roads stopped flooding. The flipside is that beavers have the capacity to block ditches and flood productive farmland.

‘Beavers are a fantastic keystone species that have a hugely important role to play in restoring Nature to Britain,’ Beavers are proving a boon to UK wildlife explains Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts. ‘Beavers help stop flooding downstream, filter out impurities and create new homes for otters, water voles and kingfishers. What’s more, people love seeing them and their presence boosts tourism in the countryside.’

The organisation hopes a new Government beaver strategy will bring legal protection— as in Scotland since 2016, where there is a thriving population—focus on reintroduction as a means to tackle the climate crisis and provide funding for this purpose. Visit www.wildlifetrusts.org/appeals-savingspecies#beaver to donate to the project.