Wild Beavers release approved for England

Beavers are released into the wilderness in England after the government has approved its reintroduction.

The decision follows years of exams and will achieve the officially approved return to the waterways.

In Great Britain, which were threatened from extinction four hundred years ago, the beavers have made a comeback in the past two decades.

However, some farmers are concerned that the large rodents could have negative effects on food production without proper management.

It is believed that about five hundred beavers already live in England, some in the wild and others in enclosures. Many more are in Scotland, where wild publications are already permitted.

Conservationists call beavers “ecosystem engineers” because they revise where they live. The dams that you build slow down the flow of rivers and streams and create habitats in which other creatures can thrive. You have also attributed the reduction in floods to the current.

“This is an incredibly exciting moment, a real landmark for the recovery of nature in England,” Tony Juniper, the head of Natural England, told me next to a Biberdamm in Devon.

“We bring back a missing animal that has been absent for centuries, and an animal that we know that he will bring enormous advantages for the rest of the wildlife, which are already exhausted in England,” he says.

The beavers are published as part of a license system supervised by Natural England.

It is said that long -term plans must be available to avoid effects on agriculture, food production and infrastructure.

This is something that the National Farmers Union is of crucial importance. It wants it to be an option to be beavers if you prove to be annoying.

David Exwood, deputy president of the NFU, said that Biber could offer certain advantages, “we are concerned about the negative effects that beavers on productive arable land can have, as well as the administrative requirements, costs and risks”.

“Beavers can flood fields and have water logs, feed on agricultural plants such as corn as well as damage and fallen trees such as cricket bats.”

We met with Tony Juniper from Natural England at the site of the pilot project for Wild Beaver Release in England, the catchment area of ​​River Otter in Devon. Beavers appeared here for the first time more than a decade ago – it is not clear where they came from. They may have escaped from housings or were released illegally, so -called “beaver bombs”.

Since then, the wild beavers have been allowed to remain, with their effects on the landscape and the way they are closely monitored with the local arable land.

“All of this open water is aimed at the beaver,” says Peter Burgess from Devon Wildlife Trust when we spray ourselves through the swampy country.

“You want this water because you feel safe and safe. It means that you can also transport your food.”

Along the Otter river, Mr. Burgess tells me that the beavers have created wetlands, in which species now accommodate like great white stimuli and royal fish. Drabs have risen as frogs and toads. Water Voles now roams the network of channels, streams and ponds with which the beavers navigate the flood level.

Not everyone in the area is enthusiastic about the idea of ​​beaver dams that appear everywhere.

Clinton Devon Estates manages several farms in the Devon catchment area, in which the project with Wild Beaver project was running in Devon. Although the return of the beavers is largely supported, there are concerns whether there were enough considerations to manage their effects.

“We also saw how arable land is flooded, we have flooded the real estate. We saw how people fell in their gardens,” says John Varley, managing director of Clinton Devon Estates.

“There are positive aspects of the beaver, huge positive aspects, but there are also some rather important negatives, especially for small farmers.”

Scotland has been in England for a few years and has already approved Beavers' release. In some areas, the beavers were so successful in breeding that they had to be relocated or the last selection of resort.

Beavers' first wild publication in England will now take place in the next few days. Dr. Roisin Campbell-Palmer from the Beaver Trust, who manages the release, said the BBC that the male and the woman of “conflict sites” had been removed in Scotland and now went through medical checks before moving south.

Additional reporting from Kevin Church.