Beavers in London and bison in Kent are just two of the amazing reintroductions that have happened in recent months in Britain.
These magnificent bison are a small group, with a matriarch hailing from Scotland and two calves from Ireland, and once the Brexit red tape is dealt with, a German bull will be joining them. The project follows a successful reintroduction in the Netherlands, where 14 bison now roam.
It is hoped that they will restore a commercial plantation to native woodland, and the plan is to complement these giant disrupters with other ecosystem engineers, that are domestic but with wilder traits such as Exmoor ponies, iron age pigs, and Longhorn cattle. It is hoped they will soon be throwing their weight around!
Beavers have also just been – almost – given native status in Britain, which should give them greater protection from direct harm at the hands of humans – don’t mention badgers who already have this protection. Once the legislation is enacted it will be illegal to deliberately capture, kill, disturb, or injure beavers, damage their breeding sites or territories
Beavers, unlike badgers, had to have a separate proactive law passed as we exterminated them such a long time ago, this meant that they fell off the native species list because they didn’t exist in Britain when we created those lists. It does seem a little crazy that this was a necessary step and commonsense just couldn’t prevail, but legislation seems to be just one of those obstacles we need to address over and over as we restore species.
In fact, the obstacles to beaver reintroductions over the last few years really does read like a tragic comedy, for more on this I really recommend reading Derek Gow Bringing Back the Beaver and following him on twitter
Because we NEED beavers, the floods and drought cycles caused by climate change can be mitigated by these industrious creatures, for free. That’s what we call ecosystem engineers. That’s their part to play in the natural world and we get to benefit directly. How awesome is that?
Perhaps the giant bison will capture the imagination of Brits who have yet to think about what rewilding means – it certainly has for this talented 8 year old! These giants are breathtaking, and – I hope – just the beginning of a whole new phase of a nature abundant Britain.
Siobhan Mitchell 