The beaver – an eager volunteer helping save our wetlands

A rare but eager volunteer is playing an important part in helping stop climate change, said Midlands environment expert Ron Fox.

Although the world is losing wetlands three times faster than forests, there is one hero helping restore them to their natural state – the beaver.

“It is amazing that to save our planet countries are now reintroducing into their wetlands these mammals, which in the past were nearly hunted to extinction because of their fur and meat,” said Ron, of Noreus Ltd on the University of Keele Science Innovation Park.

Wetlands have three vital uses. They retain water during wet seasons and release it slowly during drought; they provide food for many types of wildlife and they capture and store large amounts of carbon dioxide stopping this harmful greenhouse gas from escaping into the atmosphere, so helping reduce climate change.

But these eco-systems are disappearing at an alarming rate through increasing agricultural lands and expanding towns and cities, plus drought and higher temperatures brought about by climate change.

These furry sharp-toothed rodents build dams on waterways to create a pond, inside which they build a lodge where they can protect themselves from predators.

They chew the base of trees until they fall, and use the trunk and branches as building materials, along with stones at the base, plus mud and plants to seal the dam’s upstream wall.

The dam causes flooding, slows down the flow of water and keeps it there longer.

A study by Finnish researchers found that worldwide ponds engineered by beavers contained nearly twice as many species than other pools, including the return of many species of frogs, fish and invertebrates and weasels, otters and even moose.

Ron said: “Anyone can make a pond, but beavers make amazingly good biodiverse ponds, partly because they are shallow, littered with dead wood and generally well looked after by beavers feeding on plants, digging and repairing dams, and building their lodges.”

To show how serious the problem is the Global Wetlands Outlook published in 2021 by the charity, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, found the most widespread wetland deterioration was in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

One of the most striking examples is Lake Chad, close to the border of Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria in West Africa, which has shrunk by 90 per cent since the 1960s.

This has been mainly due to a steep rise in water demand from a rapidly growing population, unplanned irrigation and now climate-change-induced drought, plus there have been conflicts, mainly between farmers and cattle-rearers, over the limited remaining water of the lake.

During the last 50 years, Canada and several states in America reintroduced beavers, which are found only naturally in North America and Eurasia, to restore their numbers.

Now there have been more than 100 successful reintroductions of beavers for environmental reasons in North America and northern Europe, including the UK where they became extinct in the 16th century.

In Britain, beavers have been reintroduced or are planning to be brought back in Devon, Dorset, Derbyshire, the Isle of Wight, Nottinghamshire, Wales and in Scotland.

If you want any advice on the environment and green solutions, contact Ron on 0845 474 6641.

Caption: The beaver – the eager volunteer helping save our wetlands.