Here's How The Beaver Will Transform London

beavers are back in Britain these rewarding Heroes can be found living Wild on the UK's idyllic Countryside Rivers they're in plenty of enclosures dotted around the country too but now there's a reintroduction project to the country's capital London a stone's throw away from a McDonald's no less tunnel to Beaver reintroduction McDonald's in this video we're getting a tour of the site to learn all about the project so far and what we can expect in the future and in this video I've got a cool new way for you to get involved with rewilding and ecology but more on that in just a minute because I've got a couple hour drive into West London the project is in a heavily urban area of greenford within the borough of Ealing the exact location is known as Paradise fields which is part of the wider green space horseraden hill and then in good Style with any kind of urban projects we're entering through and on the pass yeah the big plans for this entrance we're going to paint a mural so one side is going to be the underwater world of a beaver Wetland yeah and the other is going to be above water this is Sean and he's part of the Ealing Wildlife group who are working with citizens Zoo friends of Horseland Hill Ealing Council the beaver trust and the mayor of London to make this project happen Paradise Fields is a little sunken Oasis with water flowing in from the Grand Union Canal that feeds into a system the ponds that are surrounded by woodlands and grasslands this already feels like that there should be beavers here this is prime beaver habitats looking very beefy all it needs now are some beavers so yeah they're not here just yet but they're said to be introduced later this year and we'll be coming back to film it so be sure to subscribe to not miss them going in and why does it look so beavery here well beavers feed exclusively on plants and one of their favorite species is Willow which there is absolutely plenty of on site and these Woodlands found in the ponds are nice and wet and although semi-aquatic their chunky bodies are much more Adept to life in the water this is going to be the site where we're releasing the levers initially whether they stay on this location or not is up for grabs they'll probably surprise us plenty of times throughout the project and what we're anticipating is beavers will probably build a lodge out in the middle of this Lagoon protected from people and dogs that are using the site they surround themselves with deep water it's one of the concerns we've had from the public will the Beavers be okay in an urban environment actually beavers do everything to put water between themselves and potential Predators or nuisances so we're fairly happy they're going to be safe as a vet obviously I'm super concerned about the Weaver's welfare and wouldn't be putting them into a position where you know I think they're going to come to harm throughout the visit Sean mentioned just how much they've worked with the local community to inform and involve them at every possible stage I think this is really important to any successful rewilding project but one big question I had as the answer to this sets up so many other potential questions is will the Beavers be wild or what level of interaction would they have with the public but just before we get into this remember at the start of the video when I said I've got a fun cool new way for you to get involved with nature and be Wilding well let's talk about that so leave curious has been sponsored by ecology training quality training are a group of expert ecologists who are qualified to deliver training on such a wide variety of different topics you can do a course on beavers it's a beginner introduction luxury online course which looks at Beaver ecology and how to survey for them you can also do an online course it's a brand new course which they've just released on rewiring takes an extensive look into the topic I'm just so excited for this because I want to be able to offer you more there's only so much I can do with these videos but with this Partnership if you're curious you can actually learn learn way more than I can ever teach you and you can maybe start to pursue a career in ecology and nature and rewilding trust me it's such fun being outside all the time and we definitely need as many people as we can in these jobs so as well as the introductory courses they also offer Advanced and bespoke face-to-face courses too I really recommend you go to the website it's linked down in the comments it's in the description and it's on the screen now that's the website you have to go to if you do want to make a purchase and check out one of the courses if you use the code 10 leave curious you'll get 10 off all online courses up to this point I've been kind of hesitant to do brand deals like this but I think this one just fits really really well so thank thank you to equality training for sponsoring this video so one of the biggest questions I had about this project is will the Beavers be wild and free to disperse and do as they please well the answer is no they will not be wild they'll be going into a 10 hectare enclosure but what sets this apart from other enclosures in the country is this one's extremely Urban but it's also allowing access to the public we originally thought of making an enclosure within this site for the Beavers but then we didn't want to have them in a zoo style enclosure we didn't want to exclude people from the part where they're going to transform so we actually said let's enclose the entire site so what we're doing is we're doing a kind of double gated system at all of the entrances self-closing gates at one end of each entrance so each end of the underpass each end of these steps so people can come in and each gate will close after them it'll let people in to use the site and not let the Beavers out all around the site where required the vegetation has been cleared for the installation of the fence now beavers are aren't climbers but they are expert and persistent diggers so Beaver proof fencing is made of galvanized steel wire with a skirt of mesh along the bottom so they can't easily dig through and underneath it and given that the site has a lot of space and suitable habitat for them they shouldn't look to leave but what if they do Escape if a beaver does get out I have been saying it's at the end of the world okay we do have beavers escaping from enclosures over time and the good thing about beavers is they're fairly obvious when you know what to look for so if a beaver hypothetically did breach the fence here in the space of five years and get into the canal and it goes up that direction or down this direction we're going to be honest we're monitoring all the time we're monitoring the fence we're monitoring the beaver's Behavior with trail cameras and if we get reports that a beaver has traveled a mile in that direction and is settled on the bank of the canal and it's fellings and trees are chewing some trees there what we're going to do is we're going to trap that beaver and return it to the enclosure I don't think we have to lose our minds if beavers get out they're not going to cause any will harm but just before we get into some of the potential problems which could arise let's look at some positives why do we get excited about beavers and what positives could they bring to an urban environment well beavers are expert water hydrological Engineers they will own it for safety and to access food so it's in the instincts to increase its area and depth and they do this by building dams where water is Flowing a beaver will fill trees pilot branches and dig channels all in the name of slowing the flow and redirecting the water Sean showed me the mainstream which feeds the site with water it's where they've recently done some clearance because it was really overgrown the Beavers are probably going to start damning this up and creating big open Wetlands open Beaver puns taking down some of these large trees to use as building materials and as food letting that light back in so we'll get like pulse of vegetation growth new species coming in dragonflies amphibians Birds bats things that actually really thrive in open light Wetland ecosystems we should see really an explosion of life here so we're so excited to be able to watch that happening over time and have the public walking through and seeing it happen in real life as well when it comes to the benefits to us something which I think that doesn't get shouted about enough is the thrill the excitement the peace that living alongside nature brings and what with beavers being able to create these highly diverse environments I think that this is reason enough but for all of the non-nature Nerds out there beavers can prevent flooding and Paradise Fields naturally holds a lot of rain water but when it's really heavy this runs off out pretty quickly into urban greenford the local Council wanted to come in and spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of engineering Works trying to alleviate flooding in this area we're saying beavers can do it for free so the beaver is holding more water on this site slowing down the flow of sight in heavy rainfall events where water would normally just flash through here in a matter of minutes they're going to be holding water and it's going to be percolating through much more slowly through the beaver Wetland system so we're hoping to show Community here in greenford and Ealing that actually having beavers living alongside you in an urban River catchment can mean your house your surroundings gets flooded less often but on balance what are the potential negative impacts of beavers well there's two main issues felling or damaging the wrong trees and flooding the wrong area Sean showed me an old oak tree which they'll be protecting as it's got a little house nesting in it protecting trees is pretty cost effective as you either wrap it in wire mesh which the Beavers don't like or paint on a Sandy gritty paste around the base of the tree as it's like sandpaper and it damages their teeth and as for flooding the wrong area in the context of the project the only wrong area would be the path but this can be mitigated by removing damps if it's wild beavers flooding areas they shouldn't dams can be removed but we have the ability to translocate them to more suitable areas which is how the Beavers will be making their way to Paradise Fields the Beavers are coming from Scotland where they're coming in conflict with farmers in Scotland and they're kind of in the wrong habitat up there so we're taking BB is that unfortunately would otherwise be lethally controlled or shot because they're in the wrong place so we're a family of Scottish beavers and bringing them back to London I think this project is going to be successful because it will show that beavers are not just a Wilderness animal that they are animals which can live in our cities and provide us with some real solid benefits Baseline surveys are in the process of being done so real comparisons can be drawn as to the impacts that beavers have and I can't wait for the invitation back to update you and document their arrival Go and show some love to the project there's a donation page which I'll put in the description of the video and also remember to check out ecology training as I think they'll have something for you and of course thank you so much for watching the video if you've enjoyed it leave a like on it do all the YouTube things be sure to subscribe because I'm just a guy who's passionate about rewarding and I love making these videos and connecting with as many of you as I can so thanks again live curious

Channel: Leave Curious

Views: 8,006

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Id: EBRqABMrkXs

Length: 10min 19sec (619 seconds)

Published: Sun May 21 2023