Save the Wild Beavers!

[GGTBod]

Good read Feralpig, no surprise that the Angling Trust are the main lobbyists trying to get the beavers removed.

After reading that article and the blog linked to it i now understand our rivers need the beaver back to halt the rapid decline of the native and migratory fish species to stop them following the extinction of presence from our rivers in the same way of the sturgeon and turbot before them. I'd like to see the Angling trust survive as an organisation without migratory salmon and trout

 

[knifefan]

Our rivers are in a bad enough state as it is without beavers creating unwanted ponds and destroying all the bank side vegetation. The EA are doing less and less to keep our waterways clear...the beaver will not be missed

 

[wattsy]

The idea is to slow down the flow UPSTREAM so it doesn't flood downstream.

Where's that facepalm thing again?

no the idea is to have less rubbish blocking the flows of rivers so that water doesn't spill over the banks and cost the taxpayer millions, we've just had some of the worst flood on record because rivers were allowed to fill up with silt, vegetation, trolleys and the like and the banks were overgrown with trees. the idea is to have an unobstructed flow wherever possible so that the rivers can cope with high rainfall

 

[Teepee]

no the idea is to have less rubbish blocking the flows of rivers so that water doesn't spill over the banks and cost the taxpayer millions, we've just had some of the worst flood on record because rivers were allowed to fill up with silt, vegetation, trolleys and the like and the banks were overgrown with trees. the idea is to have an unobstructed flow wherever possible so that the rivers can cope with high rainfall

It's exactly this thinking that has caused the flooding in the first place. Moving as large a volume of water downstream as quickly as possible down a fixed capacity of drainage is not the way to stop flooding. If it was, the increasing numbers of householders having non permeable slabs or tarmac installed where there used to be permeable garden would be helping to control the flooding. We all know this isn't true.

Mankind has thankfully worked this out for supplying drinking water and built reservoirs, but the point seems to be missed with drainage and our countries penchant for allowing large housing developments in the areas that used to hold excess rainwater.

 

[John Fenna]

On smaller streams you want to slow the water down to reduce the flow while the larger rivers want to be clear to move the water out to sea. If the flow coming down on to the rivers is reduced they have more time to shift the water without it pouring over the banks. Marshes, bogs, ponds all slow the rate at which water falls to the main river. Man has drained much of these (and built on a fair few) resulting in "Flash Flooding", Beaver make marshes, bogs, ponds and thereby reduce the risk of flooding (though not eliminate it).
Increasing the rate that water descends to the rivers from the watershed by draining bogs etc building non absorbent features like roads and patios and clearing small streams of obstructions and the water hits the rivers in a rush that the river cannot contain ... so it floods. Rivers will flood now and again due to excessive rainfall (no matter how many marshes are on the system) and develop a feature known as a "Flood Plain" that will take the excess water until the river has managed to dispose of enough of the excess water coming down from the feeder streams to return to its normal volume in its banks.
Building on Flood Plains of rivers is just asking for trouble .. the clue is in the name

 

[wattsy]

It's exactly this thinking that has caused the flooding in the first place. Moving as large a volume of water downstream as quickly as possible down a fixed capacity of drainage is not the way to stop flooding. If it was, the increasing numbers of householders having non permeable slabs or tarmac installed where there used to be permeable garden would be helping to control the flooding. We all know this isn't true.

Mankind has thankfully worked this out for supplying drinking water and built reservoirs, but the point seems to be missed with drainage and our countries penchant for allowing large housing developments in the areas that used to hold excess rainwater.

Having slabs or tarmac in no way helps drainage but thats not the issue being discussed, I would like to know more about your theory that increased flow (i.e. getting rid of the water quicker) would not help to reduce flooding.

 

[Teepee]

If you try and put 2 litres of water in a 1 litre bottle at once, it will flood. If you put a litre in at a time and empty, it won't.

In this context, the river is the bottle and the emptying of the bottle is holding upstream water long enough to give the rivers time to empty into the sea.

 

[Tengu]

Flooding can be caused by something as simple as a breeze block in a stream.

And, yes, by too many impermeable surfaces. (as happens in my fathers street)

An old water board worker told me the storm drains are not as well maintained as they used to be.

(Incidentaly, during the bad floods in the winter I was staying in the Gwent levels...dry as a bone.)

 

[petrochemicals]

To stop the flooding you need more places to take the water, like meanders in the rivers, to catck the water. Flood plains are also good at dealing with exess water, the clues in the name.

 

[feralpig]

Our rivers are in a bad enough state as it is without beavers creating unwanted ponds and destroying all the bank side vegetation. The EA are doing less and less to keep our waterways clear...the beaver will not be missed

This is not about keeping water ways clear. It's about very basic and simple management of the environment. This is nothing new, the Organic farmers have been ranting about this for years.
I don't know this bloke, and don't agree with a lot of what he says, but I was brought up in a rural area, on an organic farm, and to me, he's pretty well spot on when it comes to modern farming.
Try this,
http://www.monbiot.com/2014/01/13/drowning-in-money/
and this,
http://www.monbiot.com/2014/03/03/the-benefits-claimants-the-goverment-loves/
and maybe this.
http://www.monbiot.com/2014/02/17/muddying-the-waters/

I should add, it's not so much about the beavers, as flooding in general.

 

[santaman2000]

Beaver trapping can be profitable, but only just. Prices last February were only $11.83 for raw pelts. Add another $5 for the Alabama bounty on the tails and that's a total of just $16.83 each (just over 10 pounds)

 

[petrochemicals]

Beaver trapping can be profitable, but only just. Prices last February were only $11.83 for raw pelts. Add another $5 for the Alabama bounty on the tails and that's a total of just $16.83 each (just over 10 pounds)

That's good santaman, basically 50 quid down there in somerset. I'll get my gun.

 

[santaman2000]

That's good santaman, basically 50 quid down there in somerset. I'll get my gun.

I assume that's 50 quid for a tanned pelt?

 

[petrochemicals]

I assume that's 50 quid for a tanned pelt?

Thought there was two adults and three young. They'll be inbreeding thinking about it.

 

[santaman2000]

Ahh. Now I see.