Reintroducing beavers (1 Viewer)

[KLH]

Apparently beavers are going to reintroduced, supposedly some in the New Forest and Scotland. Would they be welcome? Or not!!

Any thoughts on this, will try and find a news link.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/mostpopu...ed.beavers_could_return_to_the_new_forest.php

 

[saluki]

Apparently beavers are going to reintroduced, supposedly some in the New Forest and Scotland. Would they be welcome? Or not!!

Any thoughts on this, will try and find a news link.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/mostpopu...ed.beavers_could_return_to_the_new_forest.php

Local reaction to the introduction can be found here:

Same landowner complaining again!

Jonathan

 

[KLH]

I have no experience of beavers o be able to say whether I agree or not on the matter. If they hold back rivers with their dams, how does this prevent flooding? Quite the opposite I would imagine, and with the recent flooding catastrophes is it really worth the risk? Especially in areas prone to flooding, should beavers be introduced/reintroduced.

 

[Xenospiza]

They've been reintroduced in the Netherlands without any ill effects (thusfar!)

Flooding (in the UK) is a problem of too little water retention in the hills (beavers won't change that) and building in stupid places (beavers won't change that either).

 

[rozinante]

Hope they don't get caught in the badger snares!

 

[Accipiter91]

Where I live, beavers are like gray squirrels...people either love 'em or hate 'em! Landowners complain that beavers cause catastrophic flooding and damage valuable timber (nothing that we humans aren't already doing eh?) Personally, I love beavers. They create valuable habitat for fish, otters, mink, amphibians, reptiles, woodpeckers, waterfowl, herons, and many other creatures. I can't imagine a place without beavers (although they were very rare or absent in many areas at one time) Of course this is in the Southeastern United States so perhaps there will be different results in the UK?

 

[Jos Stratford]

If they hold back rivers with their dams, how does this prevent flooding? Quite the opposite I would imagine, and with the recent flooding catastrophes is it really worth the risk? Especially in areas prone to flooding, should beavers be introduced/reintroduced.

I would say Beavers would be inconsequential when talking about floods of such scale. Large rivers are not dammed and even in streams levels are only raised at a very local level. They might also actually reduce larger scale flooding further downriver to a small degree by slowing down the run off. But my feeling is they are neither here nor there with regard major flooding.

Got Beavers on my land - darn pesky gits chew down all my birches ...but create fabulous habitat for woodpeckers (dead standing trees that were not completely felled), plus promote a much wider variety of habitats, including one area of open flood forest that supports breeding Crane

 

[Farnboro John]

They are a native species eliminated by man, get them back in pronto and increase UK biodiversity (and get my UK mammal list up by one!)

John

 

[Robert / Seattle]

They are a native species eliminated by man, get them back in pronto and increase UK biodiversity (and get my UK mammal list up by one!)

John

John,

You get it! Simple and elegant reasoning, and well put. Anything that promotes the preservation or restoration of natural ecosystems and biodiversity is to be applauded. It's the right thing to do. Hats off to you.

Robert

 

[KLH]

Interesting replies. I would welcome them, it would be excellent to have another animal in our native wildlife. One wonders though, if they do get reintroduced, how long it will be before they are considered pests, and control measures /culling put in place.....

 

[lulie]

In France beavers have been reintroduced to areas where they where hunted out. I regularly stay at a campsite on the river Tarn as there is an active beaver den there and I have been lucky to see the resident family swimming around.
The european beaver does not dam rivers like its north american counter part. The european beaver builds into river banks instead. It will of coarse fell trees and this can eventually change the coarse of river flow. The problem about this debate of whether or not to reintroduce speices is that WE have altered the environment so much and there is so little wild space left in the UK that there will inevitably be conflict between human and wildlife. Perhaps we should address this question before getting too excited about reintroductions. In places like france reintroductions like this meet with far greater success as there are more wild spaces and therefor less human conflict. Mind you the locals in the pyrenees where bear where reintroduced may not agree with that.

 

[saluki]

Interesting replies. I would welcome them, it would be excellent to have another animal in our native wildlife. One wonders though, if they do get reintroduced, how long it will be before they are considered pests, and control measures /culling put in place.....

Aren't you being a little pessimistic KLH!

Or maybe not! Apparently they're being fitted with telemetry transmitters so that if the whole scheme goes t*ts-up they can easily retrap the naughty beavers! That's what they're telling Robin Malcolm anyway . . .

Jonathan

 

[KLH]

Hi Jonathan

Possibly I AM looking on the downsides in that respect, doesn't take long for a species to lose it's novelty value of reintroduction!! Apart from the raptors and game birds the rest of the bird population is accepted and usually left alone by the human one unless to observe. Reintroduced species, especially furred, if they successfully breed will probably infiltrate land belonging to the disapprovers and then the trouble will start.

Would the transmitters allow them to be kept to boundaries, so they stay within certain areas, and would the people reintroducing them intervene and remove the beavers from the premises they are apparently trespassing in?