BEAVERS COULD RETURN TO WALES

BEAVERS could return to Welsh waterways by the end of the year – if campaigners succeed in bringing the mammals back. The animals, which were hunted to extinction in Great Britain by the 16th century, have already been introduced under strict trials in the Scottish Highlands.

Now a campaign to see their return to Wales is moving close to achieving its goal of re-establishing them here.

The Welsh Beaver Project needs to raise £50,000 to help in its aim of bringing beavers back in Wales.

The project and Wildlife Trusts Wales will submit a licence application to reintroduce the Eurasian beaver to Wales this year.

A site has not been confirmed but they say they are working with a range of different organisations and investigating the suitability of potential release sites across Wales.

In May 2008, the Scottish Government gave permission for a scientifically monitored, trial reintroduction of European beavers to Knapdale Forest in mid Argyll.

A year later beavers were released, making it the first time a mammal species was legally introduced anywhere in Britain.

According to the Welsh Beaver Project: “Beavers are often referred to as ‘keystone species’ or ‘ecosystem engineers’ because they manage their habitat and can provide ecosystem services.

“Beavers are herbivores, they consume herbaceous plants and the bark from deciduous trees.

“They also coppice trees to construct lodges (for resting and/or breeding) and dams. Beavers only build dams if they have to and even then they will only dam small streams to ensure that the entrance of their lodge is underwater or to reach a food resource.”

The Welsh Beaver Project and Wildlife Trusts Wales maintain there are advantages to introducing beavers, saying their dams can reduce the risk of flooding, increase water storage and improve water quality through filtering pollutants and trapping sediments.

They also say beavers can provide economic opportunities to local businesses through eco-tourism.

However, farmers have expressed concerns that dams could cause flooding and affect farmland and countryside homeowners.

A spokeswoman for the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) said: “The reintroduction of beavers will be a concern to farmers but could also pose a problem for homeowners and other property owners, including local authorities.

“Beavers can threaten property, the dams they build cause problems for migrating fish, they can damage agricultural crops and negatively affect other natural resources, not to mention cause flooding.

“We should be concentrating on protecting the wildlife we already have and there are many other priorities in terms of conservation and wildlife protection. Experience from other countries shows that re-introducing beavers can cause a lot of costly damage and not just to farmland but also to properties and infrastructure such as roads and railways.

“Far more work needs to be done before beavers are re-introduced, if at all. There has to be a compensation and control scheme in place and there has to be a contingency plan.”

If you would like to donate to the fund for the reintroduction of beavers you can visit www.justgiving.com/ campaigns/ charity/ radnorshirewildlifetrust/welshbeaverproject