Beaver management
Beaver management
Beavers are fantastic ecosystem engineers; they have the ability to transform the Island’s floodplains and rivers. The Trust is committed to managing beavers and supporting the Island community to deliver beaver management strategies for the long-term.
The Trust is working closely with land managers and other organisations where beavers are presently to understand which management strategies have worked for them. We’ll be putting measures in place so that we can deliver these on the Island if needed. We are keen to replicate the successes of projects such as the River Otter Beaver Trial in Devon. Devon Wildlife Trust has worked tirelessly to keep beavers in the wild through monitoring their activities and solving landowner conflict to ensure that they continue to live happily alongside the local community.
We are aware that beavers can sometimes cause unwelcome activities. We are keen to work with the Island community so beavers could live alongside locals in a way that is positive for both people and wildlife.
Mitigation measures would be employed if beaver activity was deemed to be unsuitable in a specific location. Some examples of mitigation strategies include:
Protection of trees
Individual trees can be wrapped with wire mesh or painted with a sand-based paint to stop beavers from gnawing them. Entire groves can be protected using wire mesh or electric fencing to exclude beavers from larger areas.
Water flow
Dams can be modified to allow for water flow. They can be notched (removing a section of the dam to allow water flow over the top), lowered and kept at a set height, or they can be removed altogether to encourage beavers to move to a different location.
Water levels
Flow Management Devices ‘(known as ‘beaver deceivers’)’ can also be installed to bring water to a tolerable level. A pipe is placed through the dam, allowing water to flow through. Beavers can continue to build the dam but this will have no impact on water levels, since flow will be controlled by the position of the pipe, allowing a flexible strategy to control water storage.
Translocation
Under Natural England licencing we would be able to live trap and relocate any nuisance beavers as well as exchanging beavers or giving them to other UK beaver projects.