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Beavers, again.

C

Chris Guy

Senior Member
Although not directly related to our barbel fishing exploits, but as beavers are/have been reintroduced to waters in Shropshire and Northamptonshire, with plans for Bedfordshire, it seems that their healthy reproduction up north, is getting out of control.
www.nature.scot

Beaver licensing figures published

23 May 20
www.nature.scot www.nature.scot
 
I beleive they create more wetland type habitats by their dam building, which has shown that it's a positive thing for fish/fry/invertebrates and many other species of plant etc.

But with land being taken up for housing developments this country couldn't allow for their continued existence unfortunately.
It's a weird notion to think there's people out there doing their best to reintroduce certain species yet they know that the growing human population of this country is going to continue to screw up the environment that they need to co exist in.
 
I absolutely love all things rewilding, but when we have no real wilderness to begin with and all land is owned by someone, then animals which radically change the landscape will cause conflict.

We’d love to see the benefits of rewilded streams and backwaters, along with the benefits its brings in terms of fry recruitment, natural flood management etc. However if you're a farmer with a couple of small streams running across your land, which get Beaver reengineered, resulting in reclaimed/flooded prime farmland, then your not going to be happy.

Both NE and CCW will be inundated with requests to either trap or cull Beavers and if you trap them, where do they get released? The woke animal rights brigade who know nothing about real land management and conservation will have a field day, as will the uninformed keyboard warriers on your local town Facebook groups.

As UK taxpayers we can fund farmers through DEFRA grants to compensate for any loss of prime farmland to Beavers. For me personally thats fine and bring it on; however you’ve also got the blinkered and increasing growth of the ‘No Farmers No Food’ brigade, many of whom appear to quite radical!

So to the original point there is only conflict ahead unfortunately!
 
Neil Blood said:
I absolutely love all things rewilding, but when we have no real wilderness to begin with and all land is owned by someone, then animals which radically change the landscape will cause conflict.

We’d love to see the benefits of rewilded streams and backwaters, along with the benefits its brings in terms of fry recruitment, natural flood management etc. However if you're a farmer with a couple of small streams running across your land, which get Beaver reengineered, resulting in reclaimed/flooded prime farmland, then your not going to be happy.

Both NE and CCW will be inundated with requests to either trap or cull Beavers and if you trap them, where do they get released? The woke animal rights brigade who know nothing about real land management and conservation will have a field day, as will the uninformed keyboard warriers on your local town Facebook groups.

As UK taxpayers we can fund farmers through DEFRA grants to compensate for any loss of prime farmland to Beavers. For me personally thats fine and bring it on; however you’ve also got the blinkered and increasing growth of the ‘No Farmers No Food’ brigade, many of whom appear to quite radical!

So to the original point there is only conflict ahead unfortunately!
Click to expand...
Exactly my issue with it Neil. It's clear that eventually their numbers will need controlling which is only going to cause more problems. Releasing an animal into an environment where its only going to come it into conflict with human interests isn't really too clever is it and certainly not the best thing for the beavers.
 
Yep Scotland is far more wild than England and Wales, but even Scotland doesn’t have true wilderness. In 2021, NatureScot issued licenses to remove 120 Beavers from Tayside alone, 87 of which were killed under license.

Also in England, you dont see the RSPB all over the Beaver success story. They must be sh*t scared of Beavers suddenly turning up on their wetland reserves, where water levels are already carefully managed by sluice systems.
 
Alas we have had no Govt who have any idea at all about the countryside and the issues wildlife face on a day to day survival task.
The latest offering from the 'Labours' offers a bleak picture with their plans to concrete over everything...I mean who in that lot could you consider a friend of the countryside?
They are stuck in their own selfish bubble and I bet not one of the little uni socialists has ever held a fishing rod or engaged in anything remotely country pursuits.
Back to Beavers they are the silent cost effective natures way of helping rewilding and reducing flood risk, that would be totally lost on those fucking dimwits.
 
If you want a first hand account of the impact of recent beaver introductions; I refer you to a recent thread titled ‘Beaver reintroduction success’.

PS. I didn’t write the title !
 
Our local council decided it would be a tick in their box to build a beaver enclosure at one end of our park/woodland. There is no running water; they cut down a huge amount of healthy trees; they built a perimeter fence some 6-7ft high with angled (inward) top that looks damned ugly to say the least.

They placed a pair of beavers in this enclosure, the female soon killed the male. They introduced another male and they (if alive) are never seen. A trapped deer tried to leap over the fence, caught it's leg and actually severed the leg, which hung on the fence and was not a good sight for any walkers including children.

What a travesty just get a tick in a box, how green they are (NOT). Don't get me started on how they (the council) have proposed to lease a huge area of the public park, for a pittance, to a multi-national conglomerate (if that's the correct phrase) in order to increase the training facility of a premiership football club from around 17 to add another 11 pitches. The said beaver enclosure will be within this area so not sure what they intend here.
 
Neil Blood said:
Yep Scotland is far more wild than England and Wales, but even Scotland doesn’t have true wilderness. In 2021, NatureScot issued licenses to remove 120 Beavers from Tayside alone, 87 of which were killed under license.

Also in England, you dont see the RSPB all over the Beaver success story. They must be sh*t scared of Beavers suddenly turning up on their wetland reserves, where water levels are already carefully managed by sluice systems.
Click to expand...
Beavers only build dams when they need to raise water levels to get a certain depth of water, otherwise they don't bother. Damming only seems to occur on smaller streams.
 
Julian Griffiths said:
But with land being taken up for housing developments this country couldn't allow for their continued existence unfortunately.
It's a weird notion to think there's people out there doing their best to reintroduce certain species yet they know that the growing human population of this country is going to continue to screw up the environment that they need to co exist in.
Click to expand...
There is a cogent argument that with pressure on land use being more acute and with the increasing impact of climate change, beavers can play a positive role in land management in some catchments.
 
Neil Blood said:
I absolutely love all things rewilding, but when we have no real wilderness to begin with and all land is owned by someone, then animals which radically change the landscape will cause conflict.

We’d love to see the benefits of rewilded streams and backwaters, along with the benefits its brings in terms of fry recruitment, natural flood management etc. However if you're a farmer with a couple of small streams running across your land, which get Beaver reengineered, resulting in reclaimed/flooded prime farmland, then your not going to be happy.

Both NE and CCW will be inundated with requests to either trap or cull Beavers and if you trap them, where do they get released? The woke animal rights brigade who know nothing about real land management and conservation will have a field day, as will the uninformed keyboard warriers on your local town Facebook groups.

As UK taxpayers we can fund farmers through DEFRA grants to compensate for any loss of prime farmland to Beavers. For me personally thats fine and bring it on; however you’ve also got the blinkered and increasing growth of the ‘No Farmers No Food’ brigade, many of whom appear to quite radical!

So to the original point there is only conflict ahead unfortunately!
Click to expand...
Culling / relocating beavers if they are in wrong place shouldn't be a problem if you have a functioning Govt body and well designed legislation. If certain elements within society get offended by this, then that is their problem and their delicate sensibilities shouldn't be allowed to dictate land use policy. The only issue that counts is what is best for the land.

Farmers are a diverse bunch with a diverse range of outlooks and perspectives, and the farming industry is good at following the money. A proper land-use framework and catchment management plan can identify which land should be allowed to flood / hold-back water in order to protect housing and high productivity farmland. In some catchments localised flooding of upstream farmland through natural flood management techniques (which includes beavers) may contribute to a net increase in food production by protecting the best land.

In the future we are likely to see a lot of money put into natural flood management by insurance companies. It is much cheaper to spend money on holding water back upstream than it is on new carpets in some of our towns and cities.
 
Paul Whiteing said:
Our local council decided it would be a tick in their box to build a beaver enclosure at one end of our park/woodland. There is no running water; they cut down a huge amount of healthy trees; they built a perimeter fence some 6-7ft high with angled (inward) top that looks damned ugly to say the least.

They placed a pair of beavers in this enclosure, the female soon killed the male. They introduced another male and they (if alive) are never seen. A trapped deer tried to leap over the fence, caught it's leg and actually severed the leg, which hung on the fence and was not a good sight for any walkers including children.

What a travesty just get a tick in a box, how green they are (NOT). Don't get me started on how they (the council) have proposed to lease a huge area of the public park, for a pittance, to a multi-national conglomerate (if that's the correct phrase) in order to increase the training facility of a premiership football club from around 17 to add another 11 pitches. The said beaver enclosure will be within this area so not sure what they intend here.
Click to expand...
They shouldn't be kept in small enclosures - it is completely unnatural.
 
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