A vision for the return of Beavers
By Matt Phelps
Species Recovery Officer
Today (29th August) The Wildlife Trusts have published A Vision for the Return of Beavers to England and Wales. This landmark publication sets out the urgent need for clarity from governments on the future for this species in England and Wales.
Although now formally recognised by Defra and the UK Government as a protected native species, currently Beavers in England and Wales can only legally be released into single, fenced enclosures, of which there are two in Sussex.
Sussex Wildlife Trust recognises the crucial role that Beavers can play in restoring the natural life support systems that people and wildlife rely on - helping with natural flood management, wildlife recovery, water resources, improving water quality, and much more. The Eurasian Beaver is widely heralded as a ‘keystone species’ – one without which whole ecosystems collapse. Beavers are a great example of how some ecosystem engineer species create their own bespoke habitat niches, such as Beaver meadows and Beaver pools. Beavers instinctively manage their natural environment meaning that we don’t need to, and beavers do it so much better than we could. The natural instincts of Beavers play an integral part in buffering our landscapes from flooding, pollution and drought, and in creating thriving wetland habitats for a whole range of other wildlife. Wetlands are some of the most biodiverse landscapes on the planet and act as fantastic buffers against the effects of climate change. Bringing wild beavers back to Sussex will start to show us what healthy, wildlife-rich and climate-resilient wetlands truly look like.
While Beavers can happily live in a diverse range of river systems, they are also returning to a cultural landscape which has forgotten how to co-exist with them. This brings both benefits and challenges in our lowland catchments. A key part of my role as Species Recovery Officer for Sussex Wildlife Trust is to help navigate some of the potential complexities of landscape-scale Beaver recovery. To this end we currently chair a Sussex Beaver Partnership, consisting of various stakeholders, and have plans to establish a Beaver management group in due course as we move towards potential wild releases in the years to come.
It has been a long time since Beavers have been part of our local landscapes, so we need to re-introduce people back to living alongside them too. If we want people and Beavers to co-exist, we need to work closely with local landowners and communities to help them understand beavers and their management. Sussex Wildlife Trust hopes that local people and future generations can once again get to know this native Sussex species as a familiar part of the natural world around them.
Comments
It would be great to see beavers reintroduced to the Pevensey Levels, especially the eastern sector, where they can help with flood plain management and biodiversity restoration and improvement. Hugh
29 Aug 2024 10:49:00
But will beavers have enough landscape to manage waterflow to their preference? The national building programme is ruining any chance of natural means.
29 Aug 2024 10:51:00
Excellent, I wish you and your team every success. I live in the north of West Sussex just south of the border with Surrey. I will look out for any work you may be undertaking in our area.
29 Aug 2024 10:52:00
I do hope your publication will speed things up. We certainly need to get beavers back.
29 Aug 2024 10:53:00
Good luck with this excellent program
29 Aug 2024 11:16:00
I have beavers on my farm in Northern Europe. They are incredibly destructive, blocking drainage ditches and streams, flooding and water logging the agricultural land and causing widespread destruction to the forest; hundreds of acres of pine, spruce, larch, birch and aspen dead and dying . Almost no way to stop the little rodents apart from trapping them and taking them far far away to terrorise some other poor farmer. Or more commonly the shotgun is used.
29 Aug 2024 11:17:00
Would love to see them up the river, behind the Mill in Uckfield.
29 Aug 2024 11:18:00
Good news for wildlife & people. The more we are educated the more benefits there could be.
We were really interested to visit Knepp last week & hear about the beavers project & concern about the future of expanding families.
29 Aug 2024 11:29:00
Glad to read the sensible post by Lorna R-S; much thought and planning needs to be given to get the beavers safely restored to our environment but what a positive step it is.
29 Aug 2024 12:01:00
Having followed beaver releases on Springwatch for years l look forward to our area having it’s own beaver lodge.
29 Aug 2024 12:11:00
As a beaver believer (and farmer on the Levels) follow the creatures progress with interest. The key will be finding ways to live with and control this amazing force of nature. Especially on a complex floodplain.
29 Aug 2024 12:34:00
Brilliant. Keep up the good work.
29 Aug 2024 13:51:00
Surely we need to clean up our rivers before even considering introducing beavers into the wild. Serious conversations with fishermen, land owners etc must be a priority.
29 Aug 2024 14:19:00
Sussex Wildlife Trust:
Pollution in rivers is a serious issue, research from the Devon Beaver Trial showed that Beaver dams helped filter the water running through them, removing sediment from the rivers, so they could help with the process of improving water quality in the river environment
Beavers could save councils huge sums of money by creating landscapes that reduce the threat of flooding. It would be good to see projections of estimated savings.
29 Aug 2024 14:46:00
Sussex Wildlife Trust:
Hi Robert, we ask Matt Phelps your question, and he said "there don’t appear to be any specific projections of estimated flood savings, as this would tend to be very site-specific. There is however plenty of research to show the positive impacts beavers have on reducing peak flows after storms. Paper here from Exeter University: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hyp.14017 And this video from the Devon Beaver Trial: Beaver dam on River Otter after heavy rain Nov 2019 (youtube.com)"
Re the comment about beavers becoming a nuisance in Germany – I would hate to think of them being re-introduced in the wild here, then becoming a nuisance and being shot. How can you ensure this will not happen in the UK?
29 Aug 2024 14:59:00
Sussex Wildlife Trust:
In extreme cases, where it is not possible to find a way for local stakeholders and Beavers to live side by side and their activities are causing significant problems, trapping and relocation of beavers would be considered.
I support this wholeheartedly.
29 Aug 2024 15:31:00
Will they want to live in our filthy rivers? 😉 Though we saw something, perhaps on country file, suggesting that these wonderful creatures contribute to cleaning them up.
Best wishes
29 Aug 2024 16:50:00
Sussex Wildlife Trust:
Research from the Devon Beaver Trial showed that Beaver dams helped filter the water running through them, removing sediment from the rivers, so they could help with the process of improving water quality in the river environment
I would like to see beavers re introduced to Sussex as I believe in their ability to help stop flooding and improving the environment for many other species
29 Aug 2024 18:29:00
Defra needs to realise that its wider obligations are to the Environment ( and not just farming). Many of our publicly subsidized agricultural policies have not necessarily benefited the environment and indeed some have been disastrous. The reintroduction of beaver- carefully managed- can help restore some of what has been lost. Defra”s monolithic and feet dragging approach eg at Knepp in the face of incontrovertible evidence as to the benefit beavers can bring to the environment was both unfortunate and unnecessary. Please can they be exhorted to do better in future regards both the untrammeled introduction of beavers as well as other species that man has persecuted to extinction.
29 Aug 2024 19:01:00
I am thrilled to learn of the beavers’ return to Sussex. How soon will it be before they are released from their enclosures and allowed to roam free?
29 Aug 2024 23:30:00
I do hope your publication will speed things up. We certainly need to get beavers back.
30 Aug 2024 05:23:00
Great work. Thank you
30 Aug 2024 08:01:00
Since I was a young boy, I have been a keen amateur enthusuast of wildlife, in particular mammals and reptiles. I am particularly excited about possible viewings of otters, beavers and grass snakes. It would be wonderful to reinstate a wild population of U.K. extinct species and the beaver has made a promising start with others, hopefully, to follow such as lynx and wolf to restore the balance between predator and prey.
30 Aug 2024 09:51:00
Those (like me!) who champion beaver reintroduction must take note of the opposition. A farmer in an undisclosed location, A Zakss, who has posted a very negative view, may perhaps be able to give some useful and helpful details if invited by the Moderator.
30 Aug 2024 11:17:00
Sussex both South of and North of the South Downs has experienced a ‘building frenzy’ for Decades. The joining up of all the towns South of the M25/M23-A24 – I’m thinking specifically ‘peri’ Gatwick/Crawley/Horsham/Billingshurst etc is leaving wild life in Island Pockets which around the world has shown to push things to extinction. I desperately want to see more diversity and the return of some long lost species. But without long corridors of connecting land (without massive roads and housing) I cant see how Beavers will be able to function. Enclosing them will be like putting them in a Zoo, and limit their ability to have the desired effect. The current political climate is HOUSES HOUSES HOUSES! and any calls for land to be just left alone for EVERYTHING else that has a stake is likely to fall on deaf ears – but good luck with your efforts.
30 Aug 2024 12:46:00
Heart-warming to read so many enthusiastic and positive views towards accelerating the beaver reintroduction to Sussex. Good to also see some more pragmatic even negative comments as we all need to be aware that even household names like Ian Botham (cricketer) can be hard driven antagonists to seemingly heavenly initiatives like protecting the last few breeding Hen Harriers in Bowland, Lancs.
Likely initiatives like the Ouse rewilding from near Gatwick to the Sea at Newhaven plus the forever flooding Cuckmere around Alfriston should be breaking ground shortly with both
offering up real possibilities for multiple for beaver reintroductions and a chance to volunteer through Sussex Wildlife Trust and many other champions. Since both shouldn’t just reduce flooding and habitat loss and degradation but also help expunge some of the poisons caused by ignorant farming and water company dereliction of duty we need all to push hard to accelerate their progress through friends and social contacts because housing, housing, housing plus roads is forever higher up the political soapbox.
30 Aug 2024 14:59:00
Great work. Thank you
31 Aug 2024 06:29:00
We steward a 40acre nature diverse site and have a possible reintroduction space as have various existing water bodies and a small steam location, all of which are tributaries to river cuckmere. it is a protected area and can easily implement the fencing conditions. It would also be a great asset for flood prevention as hellingly south of us experiences a lot of flooding due to heavy downpours. Happy to have a conversation, thanks
31 Aug 2024 11:13:00
Brilliantly put Matt as always. It is only some vague knowledge about “the damage that beavers can do” that stands between a positive attitude, by people like yourself engaging in communities, and a negative one. Keep up the good work!
31 Aug 2024 21:46:00
Excellent article – I agree with all the points raised therein. Well done!
01 Sep 2024 16:12:00
Plough on.
I understand it beavers can provide the answer to down-stream flooding.
01 Sep 2024 18:14:00
Great article and great work. Look forward to seeing this coming to fruition. Thank you.
02 Sep 2024 14:08:00
I support the reintroduction of beavers in Surey.
02 Sep 2024 16:47:00
Brilliant piece of work, well done sussex wild life trust.After watching Spring watch clip about Beavers, there is no doubt, it would improve the quality of water besides other benefit to wild life and environment.
03 Sep 2024 21:53:00
I would love to see beavers making a home in a river near me (Hailsham) the trouble is that developers have been given permision to build several thousand homes in th earea manuy of hwich are on the marshland flood plane. This of course limits the type of place that Beavers would love to build a dam and, in doing so prevent downstream floosing. If they build further up stream, on say the Cuckmere, the risk is that lodge building will cause flooding on farmland or even on housing near to the river upstream. If released into the wild in a natural fashion, i.e not pennned in, this will cause conflict with farmers and householders who would not get insurance. The trouble is NOT with Beavers but with the fact that there are too many people moving into the South East in general and all will need spaces for cars, better transport links and better community fascilities, Doctors surgeries, schools etc, all of which take up land.
05 Sep 2024 11:29:00