Last spring people across Wales were asked to share their views on beavers living in the wild in Wales and the results are now in!
Beavers lived in Britain until they were hunted to extinction approximately 500 years ago. They have recently been reintroduced to Scotland and England and the Welsh Beaver Project, led by North Wales Wildlife Trust, is seeking to re-establish beavers in Wales.
The Welsh Beaver Project has been investigating the feasibility of reintroducing beavers to Wales since 2005, and this also involves finding out what people think about beavers in Wales. Lots of public engagement work has been undertaken, but this is the first time that an all-Wales online survey has been conducted.
I’m very much in favour of Welsh beaver.
In all seriousness, as long as there is capability to trap and move lodges when they cause problems (e.g. damming water routes which are needed to avoid the flooding of property) then it’s fine. In fact, the bodies of water they create can be very beneficial. If they’re just introduced, and just left to dam waterways and culverts without maintenance crews monitoring such things, it could be disastrous. We’re bad enough at preventing floods as it is.
