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- Floods.
Floods.
and beavers to the rescue.
Gaia Solaris
September 18, 2024
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As fires ravage Brazil and floods batter the rest of the world, thousands of activists, leaders and politicians begin their yearly migration to NYC for climate week. Somehow things don’t add up. Instead of scrambling every year to keep up the “talk” façade, shouldn’t we slow down, focus on what’s happening locally, listen to our environment, and really begin to change the fast, reactive western culture we live in, first personally and then with the community around us? If we’re not first in peace within, how can harmony with all living things prevail?
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Beavers were once part of the British landscape. Place names echo their presence – from Beverley in Yorkshire to Beverston in Gloustershire and Beverley Brook running through Richmond Park down to the Thames.
They were hunted to the verge of extinction during the reign of King Henry VIII, prized for their silky fur and castoreum – the secretion from the scent sacs close to the tail, used for making perfume and medicines. The last known British beaver was killed in 1789 in Bolton Percy, Yorkshire.
Living without them for so long, ecologists argue, we’ve lost sight of how important they are to our ecosystem. Research in America, Canada and Europe has identified beavers as a ‘keystone species’ whose activities result in an exponential rise in biodiversity. Their coppicing of trees along the riverbanks – for food and to build dams and lodges – lets in sunlight which encourages green oxygen-producing aquatic plants. Woody debris dragged into the water by the beaver provides a jungle of substrate for micro-organisms to grow on – fuel for populations of invertebrates which, in turn, provide food for fish and aquatic birds.
As hydrological engineers, beavers are also hugely effective at creating water-systems that purify water, store it, and protect against devastating floods.
Much of the work we’ve done at Knepp to restore watercourses, including returning our stretch of the River Adur to its floodplain, could have been done more efficiently and at no expense, by a family of beavers.
🌏 The Culture Column
📺 What we’re watching: Sugarcane
📸 Profile of the week: @mayasideas
📖 What we’re reading: Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown
🤯 Shocking fact we learnt this week: Beavers can improve wetlands and reduce flooding