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| Who, What, Why: Do beavers prevent flooding? | Who, What, Why: Do beavers prevent flooding? |
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| After heavy flooding across southern England, there are calls for beavers to be reintroduced. Would they help, asks Tom de Castella. | |
| You might assume that beavers cause floods. Their lives revolve around building dams and creating waterlogged habitats. But some supporters say they can actually help with the problem of flooding by keeping the water safely upstream, away from people. Beavers are "nature's water manager", says Derek Gow, a farmer and ecologist in Devon who has created his own wetland enclosure with about 25 of the creatures. They dig canals, build lodges and create numerous dams in a small area - as many as 20 in the space of 200m, says Gow. Studies from France and the US suggest that a wetland area can hold up to 40 times as much water when beavers are present, he says. "They reinstall the sponges" to the landscape, he argues. | |
| Holding water upstream in large quantities means that instead of water cascading down to the river valleys, it is only gradually released. Modern land management - draining uplands and bogs, cutting down trees and straightening rivers - has exacerbated traditional flood risk, says Springwatch presenter Chris Packham. The loss of beavers is another element of this. "Putting beavers back into the wild would be a great asset," he believes. "Along with Albania we [the UK, apart from Scotland] are the only country in Europe not to reintroduce them." | |
| Wild beavers exist in Scotland but there are none in England. A plan to remove around 100 feral beavers living in the River Tay was reversed in 2012. A beaver trial has been going on in Knapdale Forest in Argyll since May 2009. The results will be announced and given to government next year. Some will say reintroduction across the whole of the UK is too risky. Many landowners, foresters and fishermen oppose the reintroduction of beavers over fears about damage to fish stocks and woodland, but supporters like Packham and Gow say these fears are misplaced. The Country Landowners Association refuses to comment on beavers. | |
| There are potential downsides. A house in Washington state in 2012 was reported to have been hit by a "wall of water" after a dam created by beavers broke. The return of the beaver in Estonia has proved controversial. "Beavers have caused floods in forests, which means the forest may perish because of the excessive damp," Kaarel Roht, senior specialist in the forest department at the country's Ministry of the Environment said in 2008. | There are potential downsides. A house in Washington state in 2012 was reported to have been hit by a "wall of water" after a dam created by beavers broke. The return of the beaver in Estonia has proved controversial. "Beavers have caused floods in forests, which means the forest may perish because of the excessive damp," Kaarel Roht, senior specialist in the forest department at the country's Ministry of the Environment said in 2008. |
| But all this is manageable, say supporters, if you put them in the right place. Their reputation as tree wreckers is unfair, Gow says. They coppice woodland, making trees shorter and more spaced out, allowing plants to grow in between. They wouldn't work everywhere. The Somerset Levels has a manmade "pumping regime" and beavers would burrow into flood walls and stream banks. But in wilder parts of Britain, such as the River Camel in Cornwall or the Kielder Forest in Northumberland they would work well, says Gow. | But all this is manageable, say supporters, if you put them in the right place. Their reputation as tree wreckers is unfair, Gow says. They coppice woodland, making trees shorter and more spaced out, allowing plants to grow in between. They wouldn't work everywhere. The Somerset Levels has a manmade "pumping regime" and beavers would burrow into flood walls and stream banks. But in wilder parts of Britain, such as the River Camel in Cornwall or the Kielder Forest in Northumberland they would work well, says Gow. |
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