Beavers returning to the Culm after 400 years

eavers have been trying to colonise the River Culm 400 years after they were hunted to extinction in England, says Jake Chant, beaver field officer for Devon Wildlife Trust.

One young beaver walked the few hundred yards that separate the headwaters of the Culm and Otter, looking for new territory in which to set up a family.

That was last year, when under the terms of the Natural England licence for the River Otter beaver research project any beaver straying into a different catchment had to be trapped and returned.

Since then the Government has announced that beavers can stay and be allowed to spread naturally and it’s only a matter of time before the next one walks across the watershed, Jake told an online meeting arranged by the Connecting the Culm project.

Beavers first reappeared on the Otter in 2008 and they have flourished, with the number of family groups rising to 15 last year. They are breeding successfully; the young kits are surviving and are healthy.

One expert believes the ecology of the Otter catchment is capable of supporting up to 180 beaver families, but Jake Chant said it was likely that the animals would have to be managed before that happened. This would include “working with landowners to mitigate any issues”, educating landowners, trapping and removing unwelcome beavers from certain areas, such as sewage plants. If there was nowhere to release them this could mean in the future culling beavers

Eurasian Beavers are semi-aquatic herbivores, which feed mainly on willow leaves and bark and build dams from sticks, bricks scaffolding poles, fencing materials and anything else they can find.

When given enough space they also dig extensive canal networks, and in one place in the Otter catchment have created hundreds of meters of waterways, which they and other wildlife, including otters, water voles and grass snakes, use to travel. “They have a dramatically positive impact on biodiversity,” said Jake.ter areas would have been sopping wet and beavers would have trapped millions and millions of lit

“When you go to these beaver-created wetlands you realise what we have been missing for centuries in England. You realise the biodiversity loss we have suffered. Our headwaters at the tops of our streams. This would have cleaned the water as it came down through the catchments. It would have acted as a sponge which would have absorbed water and stopped it flowing very quickly downstream

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow has said the River Otter beavers reintroduction trial has proven highly successful – “improving biodiversity and water quality, mitigating flooding and making the local landscape more resilient to climate change”.

She added “We also understand that there are implications for landowners, and take care to ensure that all potential impacts are carefully considered. The government is consulting on a national approach to beaver management.

You can watch Jake’s presentation on this link.