Beavers Flood and the Natural Context

and mossy Earth we have a growing variety of really exciting rewinding projects and as we've been expanding our reach in the UK there's been a bit of a common theme unfolding more often than not we've been replicating what beavers do whether if it's our direct attempts at imitation by building dams on glassy incorporating Fallen trees and branches into the river chew or directly getting into character we're always learning from nature and taking actions that allow natural processes to take the lead on our projects but as humans we can only be so effective sometimes you have to just sit back and admire the pros and when it comes to Wetland ecosystem engineering there is no other species

quite like the beaver and here in Scotland we're now seeing the return of this very important animal and it's been causing a little bit of a stir which is why we'll be meeting Tom a farmer whose welcome beavers back to his land and he's now reaping the rewards of living alongside them however although we're now seeing beavers return to Scotland they've had a horrible history and haunted to Extinction the Eurasian Beaver was once widespread across Europe but by the 16th century it was extinct in the UK completely extinct and there were just a few populations remaining throughout Europe in Germany France and Norway the beaver was hunted for its meat and S glands but largely because of

its fur beaver pelts were highly sought after to make cold weather coats and hats they were fashionable and this really put a huge pressure on the beaver in the UK so much so it was completely eradicated a native charismatic creature was lost and the shape of Britain's Wetlands completely changed but thankfully over the past few centuries the beaver has been recovering across Europe we stopped hunting them and there were laws introduced to protect them and by the 1990s more than 200 different translocations had taken place in 25 different European countries but nothing had happened in the UK but it was a Scottish national Heritage who decided to change this and they began to make

the case for the return of the Beaver to Scotland and this brought all of the necessary work which goes along with that stakeholder engagement habitat assessments impact assessments they eventually put in the application for the beaver to return to napale and this first application was rejected due to fears that the Beavers would damage internationally protected Woodlands after a few years and a lot of good work the Scottish Wildlife trust and the Royal Zoological Society for Scotland submitted a new application for release and in 2008 this was approved and a year later the Beavers were released as part of a trial reintroduction seeing a total of 16 beavers released during the trial and it was regarded a great success but it was

also at this time that something else was unfolding and this is kind of how it always seems to be with beavers here in the UK during this time an accidental Beaver population was beginning to form on the river Tay now we don't know whether or if these beavers had been illegally released or if they'd accidentally escaped but either way it was this introduction to napale and these and this accidental Beaver population on the Tay which are really responsible for most of the Beavers that we have throughout Scotland today beavers are herbivores eating leaves Roots Woody stems and aquatic plants they fill trees to Feast upon stripping the bark nibbling off branches which are then used to construct their

dams and lodges which they maintain and live in as a family building dams digging trenches moves and backs up the water expanding their habitat you see beavers feel safest in the water as there's less chance of being caught by Predators as beavers altered their environment to increase the size of their habitat the knock and effects for biodiversity are tremendous improving the habitat for a wide variety of species from insects to fish amphibians birds and other small and large mammals even trees and vegetation benefit from having beavers around even if they end up looking like this Beaver ponds are deeper and larger areas of water that can withstand long hot dry Summers

keeping the trees and plants green during these periods of drought as trees are failed they regrow and create a diversity in the habitat's age and structure which is key for mammals and birds as wood is introduced into the water course this creates brilliant conditions for invertebrates to thrive and subsequently the fish too who eat them the knock on benefits of biodiversity are intricate and complex and this is why we've been doing our very best to build beaver dams over at glassie But first you might be wondering why are we mimicking beavers instead of just translocating on reintroducing them Beaver introductions are heavily licensed which we'll get more into later but this is a barrier for many people

wanting to have beavers on their land additionally so many of our waterways have degraded riparian strips and even those areas that have seen riparian restoration it will take a good few years before they are sufficiently mature to feed and provide materials for a family of beavers we're addressing this through riparian tree planting throughout the UK but in the meantime we'll be able to help our waterways using other methods so on glassie we have a very degraded burn that sits within a former non-native Conifer Plantation our surveys have shown us that although it's depleted the area is supporting some life but we know it should be a whole lot more so in building a sequence of fake beaver dams we're hoping to Kickstart the dyo

processes and variation in flow that is characteristic of more natural water courses and along with this we've been planting native trees along the banks of the burn and on the river cheu in the southeast of the UK we've been building and introducing different kinds of body structures from Whole trees to smaller branches we're attempting to mimic the actions of the ecosystem engineering Beaver we're able to set up and fund this work through our Mossy Earth members a global community of like-minded people who want to see habitats recover and nature return monthly contributions Empower us to do all of the necessary work across a wide variety of projects from the Amazon jungle to the Benin deserts we're always

looking for effective ways to restore nature all our work is visible through reports in your account through these update videos here on YouTube and also within our lovely monthly fi report and if you want to dig a Little Deeper we post a quarterly financial report as well as our major project transactions on our website if you're interested in becoming a member I'll leave a link to our website down in the comments so when it comes to the benefits which beavers can bring people I feel like there's an idea which underpins all of it for me anyway it's kind of an intangible thing it's a feeling that I get that when I come to these Beaver Wetlands I just feel more at peace and I feel better

connected to Nature you know these are little pockets of wilderness which wouldn't exist without the Beavers if you look at landscape in Scotland you've got vast open areas you've got loads of Forestry it's all man-made but when you come here this is made by beavers and you just feel better connected to Nature and that I think is really important to better understand this relationship between beavers and people I caught up with Tom a Scottish farmer who runs Ary red kites here he not only runs a functioning Farm but he's also introduced red Kites and now beavers over the past few years two introductions have taken place here on Tom's Pond which sits within a postural landscape that was the first thing that

really stood out to me about the beaver habitat here of how much it contrasted to the grassland Hill surrounding it in the patchwork of the landscape it serves as a nice break not only for biodiversity but also for Tom's Farm there's always water in the pond now but Downstream it goes dry in the summer months um and then you get the series of pools down there in the winter so it's really changed you know kind of um it's like a sponge that kind of soaks up water in the summertime and then lets it out in the winter it's quite different and how important has that been for you as a farmer have you been using it as a resource or have you just the main thing actually is that they've

um really reduced flooding incidents on the farm you know um again you'd hardly believe it with this Pond when you see it now um but this tiny outflow stream that used to come out which probably that white um that would have in previous years has burst its banks probably four or five times in a wet winter washed away the farm track and flooded the farmyard um and that doesn't happen anymore Tom was able to be strategic and to some level control where the Beavers had their impact and in turn it worked very well protecting his farm from flooding but this can go the other way where beavers create dams and flood the wrong areas this has happened in Scotland to farmland and

it's made many farmers fearful but given that beavers can actually be an asset to Farmers I was interested to know exactly what has caused this fear as beavers return there not been a lot of positive Beaver stories in the farming press frankly so you know if you're only seeing the negatives then there's going to be that fear I think there's also a significant amount of mistrust between farmers and conservationists as well um a feeling that you know maybe um one side is always doing to the other you know um and I think that runs both ways I think the conservationists feel it as well I mean there are genuine concerns in some areas with beavers and um I suppose possibly one of the real issues that we haven't as a country

managed to address yet is that kind of who pays if something goes wrong situation you know at the moment if a farmer's Fields underwater there's no compensation for that um no incentive schemes to encourage people to store water on land so you know you've got that whole issue of um I kind of why should I suffer local pain for National gain kind of thing you know which is a hard one to answer and until we answer that then I think all reintroductions are going to be problematic running wildlife and be retours has become an important part of the business on the farm allowing people to come and see these relatively novel animals and their habitat is not only smart on a business sense but it also allows those interested to see firsthand

exactly what beavers can do if you wanted to learn more or potentially book a Beaver tour we'll leave a link to their website in the description I would also like to thank Elliot from the beaver trust Who provided us with some beautiful footage of beavers to use in this video do be sure to check out the beaver trust as they do all kinds of crucial work to restore educate and protect beavers in Britain just got to be a little bit quiet because they're over there in their Lodge asleep man it must be I reckon it's quite cozy in there you know family of beavers all nled up I hope you've enjoyed this look into beavers here in Scotland and if you're interested in supporting our Rew Wilding efforts not

just here in Scotland but now all over the world then you can become a member what I'll do is I'll leave a link down in the comments which will'll take you to our website but please I encourage you to watch some more of our videos here to really get a good understanding of what we do here at Mossy Earth in the meantime thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one