Our Strange Plan to Fully Rewild This River

so we're building a fake Beaver Dam on this River now I know what you must be thinking what are Mossy Earth up to now what even is a fake Beaver Dam and why on Earth would you want to build one well we're very excited to introduce you to one of our latest project areas in Scotland glassy Farm a member of the Northwoods rewarding Network where we're undergoing work to rewild this rather sorry looking River it's had a bit of a rough history but thanks to glassy's brilliant owner Julian and of course our dedicated members we've been able to begin restoring key parts of this by parent ecosystem and in this video we want to introduce you to the project and tell you all about our plan this section of the river at glassy is sadly a common sight across much of Scotland and one thing you cannot help but notice is the lack of treats it's the same story at two of our other project areas next to rivers lonely strips of water just about holding on in a Barren landscape a long long history of deforestation over grazing and Andrew's change in Scotland is the cause of this depleting not only the quality of the water the rivers themselves but fundamentally the areas of land either side we call these sections of the river The riparian Zone these are the areas of land that connect aquatic habitats to land habitats and because of this they're typically areas of extreme biodiversity where numerous and complex ecological interactions take place seemingly simple things like leaves blowing in the wind which land and enrich the water to young salmon eating their way through all the little aquatic invertebrates and of course we're really impactful interactions take place with keystone species like the beaver who move in fell trees and engineer a completely different kind of landscape by you guessed it building dance but on our project area none of these processes are unfolding in fact there's not even one single native Riverside tree this is where Duncan comes in he's an old friend of Mossy Earth and these days he helps us find good places to restore in Scotland particularly along the river tear and is tributaries and working together with his wife Maya and our biologist Ellie they are the team in charge of this project and the restoration of this stream right here where we are there's a clear fell site where there was a conifer Plantation we are next to a stream that the conifers were planted too close to that stream absolutely here comes through several hundred acres of conifers as well uh so we can assume that there's a there are acid flushes from time to time so yeah Conifer needles collect acid and when there's a major rainfall event because the trees are planted very close together and they're very little understory all those needles wash off into the river and that's because an acid flush so I'm just Upstream from our project area classy you can see I'm surrounded by a conifer Plantation these plantations really aren't good for wildlife and as I mentioned this small stream is part of the riverte catchment which is a stronghold for the struggling Scottish salmon population and acid flushes can be seriously detrimental to insects and invertebrate populations that young salmon rely upon for feeding but that is not the only problem we have here yeah so here we have evidence of exacerbated rates of erosion and this little stream which in this part of Scotland we call a burn is incising into its Channel and that disconnects it from from what was previously its floodplain so this is floodplain and you can see it's eating its way into the bank there and and getting deeper into its Channel and it is the combination of these two problems which has prompted us to construct our own Beaver Dam to kick start the hydrological and then the ecological restoration of this important habitat but before we get into explaining exactly what building a fake Beaver Dam entails I want to introduce Juliet who owns glassy farm and whose approach to managing the land is extremely refreshing if you look at the land now it's not got much diversity and Wildlife and because it's had a lot of years with just Sitka Spruce on it so now we're just wanting Wildlife it's just so much more pleasant in the area to walk in and listen to you can sit down and listen to a Skylark in the mid-spring summer and that's just gives you such a great feeling Julian sees the same potential at glassy that we see in all of our project areas and although sometimes it can feel like things are falling apart remember that with each problem there's an opportunity to set things straight to make it better and that's exactly what we aim to do at Mossy Earth and together with you our community we try to be part of the solution to research to set up and Implement a variety of rewilding projects that focuses on a wide diversity of different habitats and species and all of this is funded by our members who pay a small amount each month we put it together and set up these projects so if you're interested in becoming a member or you want to know more check out mossy.earth there'll be a link in the description and a comment pinned down below now let's go and check out our Beaver Dam so right here is where we're planning to construct our dam the water will back up behind it getting deeper and widening before flowing around and creating new channels through the floodplains after it but before we can go about constructing our Beaver Dam it's really important to properly plan and follow the correct approach draw a minimum of three weeks those constructing the dam have to acclimatize to Life as a beaver living and swimming in the water gnawing and nibbling branches and just getting used to working with our new stubby arms okay so obviously this is a joke surprisingly we do not recommend doing any of this instead what has to happen is a process of Baseline surveys it is really important to gather information on exactly what's happening at glassy now so that once we've constructed the Beaver Dam we can confidently show any changes after our intervention that is how good results-based projects work and then there is also the fact that these surveys are required in order for us to be granted the license to construct the dam itself now we're going to work through a timeline to bring you up to date on all the surveys and really everything we've done at glassy so far back in mid-January Duncan and Dougie got started building these explosions to help protect our newly planted trees we're kickstarting the process of regeneration along the river by planting species like Willow older and Aspen all species which thrive in riparian ecosystems winter is the perfect time of year to plant trees and Duncan and Dougie worked hard in the snow to get them in Wood exposures are very important to keep out there who've given the chance will gobble up young sap leagues this is something we have used in some of our other project areas together with our partners along the river D and the results so far have showed us that the protection measures are working as the trees are coming your well then at the end of the month Ellie and Maya carried out the first River habitat survey which collected data from a two kilometer length of the river Channel assessing the condition of the river as well as all the types and overall quality of habitat found along the river but getting down the bottom of the stream where the habitat is actually pretty good here behind me example of how it is home to a wealth of insects and loads of fungi as well and all of this will be feeding into the wider riparian ecosystem this section of the river is a really nice example of what we're hoping to achieve up on our project area which at the minute is not currently doing a great deal for biodiversity the banks are collapsing due to a lack of trees and this also means that all the benefits that come from having Woody structures in the Stream are absent then in early February we carried out an otter survey which is actually required of any project that's altering the Watercourse as otters are protected in Scotland so today I've come along to film Maya do the otter survey here at onglassy Farm whoops just nearly found out a hole there the area we were looking at included 300 meters up and 500 meters Downstream from where we'll be constructing the dam walking along the banks of the river looking for any potential evidence of otters using the area this includes poor prints fur droppings paths Nursery Holts hovers and couches which are where otters rest or call home could this be a feature here it's too far away from the river is it it's a bit small it can be here yeah it can be on the floodplain or on the on the corridor it's too small would not do anything but it's something like this bigger that we are looking or even more of this together this was about as interesting as it got along our survey area and given the degraded nature of the site no signs of otters were found the final survey which is yet to be carried out is the Freshwater Pearl muscle survey this is another survey required due to their protection and the method is quite interesting but I'd rather wait and show you properly in the next classy episode once these final surveys are done we'll be waiting for a license to be confirmed that we can begin building the dam hopefully sometime early this summer this is something that we're really excited about we're not only hoping it kickstarts really important processes are glassy this is something we're hoping we can replicate elsewhere in Scotland to revitalize these riparian waterways and for glassy itself we're hoping that by creating Beaver habitat that they themselves might move in as they're currently not too far away species like Aspen and Willow can take off very quickly you know and really get established quickly and grow quickly and spread quickly so I can see a scenario within two or three years where it could comfortably house a family of beaver here in another couple months we should have another update for you from glassy where we should be building the dam I'm very excited for it and if you don't want to miss it be sure to subscribe with the Bell turned on and if you want to become a member check out Mossy Delta Earth until next time cheers

Channel: Mossy Earth

Views: 1,978,355

Keywords: river rewilding, river restoration, rewilding britain, rewilding scotland, beavers rewilding, beavers, beavers scotland, fake beaver dam, rewilding scotland beavers, uk river restoration, rewilding uk, transforming a river, rewilding a river, fake beaver, building a beaver dam, building a dam, beaver rewilding uk, mossy earth, mossy earth rewilding, reforestation, mossy earth scotland rewilding, rewilding the uk, scottish rewilding, mossy earth scotland, mossy earth uk

Id: ePvAlpAyZI8

Length: 10min 18sec (618 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 24 2023

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