Beavers: the original engineers of Britain’s fresh waters Kelsey Wilson, Alan Law, Beavers have had a profound effect on the wetlands of Knapdale Forest, Argyll, since their release Martin Gaywood, Paul Ramsay 11 years ago. Roy Waller/Alamy Stock Photo and Nigel Willby eavers are agents of change. In modern-day the benefits of beavers observed elsewhere likely to Britain, it feels somewhat surreal to encounter be replicated in our heavily modified landscapes Ba landscape profoundly altered by something after a 400-year absence, and what do we still need other than humans, yet this would once have been to know? First, we provide a brief update on the the norm across much of the Northern Hemisphere. status of beavers in Britain and some background The loss of megafauna, and the biota and ecologi- on their biology and behaviour. cal processes that depend on their activities, is A potted recent history something that we now recognise as a hallmark of the Anthropocene. While Britain has had a slower The Eurasian Beaver Castor fiber is a charismatic start than some mainland European countries, native mammal that was once widespread through- beaver reintroduction is now gathering traction, out Britain, but was most likely hunted to extinction motivated by prospects of habitat enhancement, by the 1600s. Beavers were officially returned in natural flood management and wider biodiversity 2009, following a long debate that resulted in a five- benefits. Beaver numbers in some regions of the year trial-reintroduction project at Knapdale Forest, country have reached levels which 20 years ago in the west of Scotland – the Scottish Beaver Trial wouldCopyright have seemed unimaginable. Responding © to British(SBT). The complex tale ofWildlife how beavers became the recent rise in licences for beaver reintroduction reacquainted with British waters has featured in issued by Natural England, Patrick Barkham even previous issues of British Wildlife (Gaywood et joked in The Guardian that beavers have replaced al. 2008; Jones et al. 2013), but a brief update is croquet lawns as the must-have accessory for overdue. Tayside is now the stronghold of beavers English country estates. in Britain following escapes from private collections, So, what will the expansion of beavers mean for coupled with unauthorised releases of animals on freshwater habitats in Britain? To what extent are the rivers Tay and Earn, suspected to date back August 2020 British Wildlife 403 Beavers: the original engineers of Britain’s fresh waters underwater to be used in winter when food is sparse to safeguard them or to reduce diffuse pollution and or inaccessible. The beavers will sometimes feed bank erosion. on cereal or vegetable crops if a territory borders An increasing obsession with order and control arable farmland. has undoubtedly been to the detriment of the great While beavers are best known for their diversity of organisms that rely on disturbance and dam-building abilities, this behaviour is far from weak competition, many of which have declined ubiquitous. Dams are built in order to raise and in recent decades following eutrophication and the stabilise water levels, providing a submerged lodge cessation of traditional management. As beavers or burrow entrance, ready access to resources and excel when it comes to creating ‘untidy’ landscapes safety from land-based predators. Dam densities, (perhaps one thing that all parties in the beaver composition and heights, and the area inundated, debate would agree on), their activities can have vary hugely with topography: in smaller streams important cascading effects on freshwater biota. there may be in excess of 10 dams/km, with Beaver-engineered stream channel on private land Beaver-generated fine-scale habitat complexity, Ecological impacts in Tayside. This was formerly a straightened channel Tayside. Anyone can make a pond, but there is only structures often 1–1.5m tall, while on lakes and 1m wide. Nigel Willby one way to make a beaver pond. Nigel Willby lowland rivers dams are scarcer and lower in height, Aquatic vegetation to the early 2000s. A 2017/18 survey estimated semi-aquatic, crepuscular rodents, in which order but may potentially be longer and can impound Beavers affect aquatic vegetation in two ways: first, 114 active territories (approximating to 319–547 they are beaten for size only by the South American valley wetlands (Gurnell 1998). In some locations, through inundation and creation of less shaded animals) dispersed across Tayside’s fresh waters Capybara Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris. They live dams may simply not be required. habitat by damming; and, secondly, by eating it. (Campbell-Palmer et al. 2018). This population in family groups usually comprising two breeding The ponds formed upstream of beaver dams are The first is what beavers are renowned for, but the has trebled since 2012 and appears to be spreading monogamous adults, their offspring from the colonised by plants, aided by propagules carried second is arguably of equal or greater ecological westwards, with satellite territories now appearing previous year(s), known as yearlings and subadults, downstream, imported by beavers and other importance. in the Forth catchment and Trossachs. In England, and their kits. Unlike other rodents, beavers breed biota, or from a pre-existing wetland seedbank Unshaded, shallow water with periodic small, licensed populations are now established or only once a year, in late spring, typically producing (beavers may rework systems that they occupied disturbance tends to suit aquatic plants, but imminent in at least ten counties, mostly as part of two to four kits, which emerge from their lodge or decades or even centuries earlier). The key to the the added benefits of beaver dams are still enclosed trial projects. Some of these date back to burrow in the summer. The offspring usually stay ecological interest of a beaver pond is ongoing striking. In southern Sweden, the difference in the early 2000s, the largest (and only officially sanc- in their family group for up to two years, before maintenance of dam and lodge, fluctuating water plant composition between adjacent patches, an tioned) free-living population in England comprising dispersing around the period April–June. Beavers levels, canal-digging, grazing of plants and collapse indicator of fine-scale heterogeneity, was 17% around 13 territories on the River Otter, Devon are very social animals and have a dominance or windblow of drowned trees, which adds to the higher in beaver ponds than in other adjacent (Brazier et al. 2020). In Wales, the feasibility of hierarchy based on age. They mostly communicate jumble of felled or fallen dead wood. Ultimately, non-beaver wetlands, while plant species richness officially bringing beavers back is being investigated, through scent-marking and deposit a pungent after anything from three to 30 years, neglect of was 33% higher in beaver ponds (Willby et al. and several small enclosed populations already exist glandular substance called castoreum (historically a dam, loss of water and successional processes 2018). Fifty percent more species were restricted on private estates. used in perfumes and food flavourings) at the edge combine to create a beaver meadow. Beaver ponds to beaver ponds in this region than were restricted Since May 2019, beavers in Scotland have been of their territories to warn off rivals. Territory sizes are gloriously complex places with sometimes to other wetlands, with ruderal species the main listed as a European Protected Species, a status vary widely (0.5–20km) with habitat quality, but bizarre juxtapositions of species and microhabitats beneficiaries (Law et al. 2019). Beavers are clearly celebrated by conservationists but not welcomed typically average 3–4km of riverbank or lakeshore. quite unlike anything else, but they would be far able to create novel freshwater habitats which are by all. In parts of rural Tayside, beaver activity Although beavers themselves are often elusive, less interesting, and much like any other pond, if not easily replicated: anyone can make a pond, but can conflict with lowland farming and therefore the signs of their activity are unmistakable and are beavers simply constructed their dam and then there is only one way to make a beaver pond. translocation or lethal control is permitted under usually concentrated in, or adjacent to, riparian swam away. A major element in the enduring interest of beaver licence. Tayside beavers have been translocated to woodlands. Beavers are strictly herbivorous and, The end result is that beaver activities collectively habitats is that the animals feed heavily on aquatic Knapdale to reinforce that population and to boost when on land, forage mostly within 30m of the promote habitat heterogeneity, which is a corner- vegetation during the growing season. Beavers are its genetic diversity, but they are also in demand riverbank or lakeshore. They form well-worn trails stone of biodiversity. In ecological restoration, usually referred to as choosy generalists: they will for ongoing or proposed trials in various parts of inland from the water’s edge, where they gnaw and a common priority and criterion for success is eat most plants but not quite everything. Being large England.Copyright The River Otter Beaver Trial runs ©until the Britishfell broadleaf trees, often Wildlife then stripping the bark enhanced heterogeneity. Some might call this patchi- and territorial, they have the potential to exert a end of August 2020, after which the government and leaves. For shelter they build impressive lodges, ness, others complexity, but, whatever the definition, strong impact on the composition of surrounding will decide on the future status of beavers in using sticks, vegetation and mud, or burrow into the intrinsic ‘messiness’ of large grazing animals is vegetation communities within a few seasons. By England. soft banks, as well as digging networks of canals to a great source of heterogeneity. Our wetlands have selecting large, fleshy or rhizomatous plants they provide access to wooded areas for feeding.