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Beavers can help tackle Britain’s rising flooding problems, according to a government-sponsored report, as the political debate over whether to reintroduce them continues.
The review found that boosting natural infrastructure like animal habitats, forests, sand dunes, and mudflats, can play a “major role” in protecting people from flooding, by slowing and absorbing the flow of water.
The Environment Agency said it is “mainstreaming” the use of natural protections against flooding, alongside the use of engineered defences, backed by £25m in funding.
For the first time its guidance, last updated in 2017, included an assessment of the role beavers, oyster reefs, and underwater seagrass and kelp can play in protecting against floods and coastal erosion.
It found the beavers – which engineer the ecosystem through building dams and channels – can reduce peak flows, increase groundwater storage, trap sediment, connect up floodplains, support other wildlife and store carbon.
But it says more evidence is needed on the number of dams and how to manage the semi-aquatic mammals.
They were hunted to extinction in Britain around 400 years ago, but have recently made a limited comeback, through trial schemes, escapes from enclosures, and illegal releases.
Their formal reintroduction has bounced up and down the agenda as ministers and governments have come and gone.
The first trial in the UK was hailed a success when it concluded in 2009, and the animals were allowed to stay put in Argyll, Scotland.
In 2021, Boris Johnson as the prime minister promised to “build back beaver”. But…
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