Thursday
Jul232015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Wild waters of rewilding
Jul 23, 2015 Greens There's a fascinating story in the Scotsman this morning. The Perthshire town of Alyth was one of many places around the UK that were affected by floods last week, and there were some extraordinary photos of the aftermath, with cars strewn across road, bearing witness to the ferocity of the torrent that hit the town. Residents are apparently now pointing fingers at two pet projects of environmentalists - beavers and fallen timber, left lying "to encourage biodiversity".
It's a bit early to say if this is true or not, but one to watch I would say.
Reader Comments (23)
In the old days, when local country folk knew what they were doing, the countryside was kept in good condition by good management. Rivers and ditches were kept clear and free-flowing. Nowadays countryside management is all controlled by directives and rules dreamt up by people with no knowledge of the countryside and who are barely out of their nappies.
Is this yet another example of poorly thought through environmental policy, of re-introduction/protection of species? I note how quickly the landowner on whose land the beavers live was to poo poo any beaver contribution to the flood, by the use of the words "a few twigs"!
PB - local country folk do still know what they are doing but they are not permitted to do it by those who don't know what they are doing but think they do.
That was one of the claims of some of the residents in Boscastle for the 2004 flood.
Greens are no doubt pleased that no beavers were harmed as a result of man's failed Green experimentation in bio-engineering, and will accept no financial liability for any of the consequences.
No, NO, NO!
The floods are yet another sign of climate change.
Why can't you see the obvious?
Sarc
Bitter&Twisted, the mere mention of climate change, makes some people go Green with anger management issues.
Interfering with waterways is invariably a double-edged sword, Floodplains accept and then release floodwater over time. Flood barriers on the flood plain increase and accelerate flood surges downstream. Beaver dams are supposed to slow the incidence of flood surges.
Perhaps Scotland has imported the wong kind of beaver?
When the beaver supporter says "“There could conceivably have been a twig or two that had come from beavers," he is showing a serious level of denial, regardless of of whether there was any major effect of beavers on the severity of the flooding. Beavers don't chew twigs. They chew down serious tree stems - rarely less than 5 cm in diameter as this is what they need to create the framework for the dam. If the residents say they saw beaver teeth marks, this will have been on decent sized pieces of wood which will cause serious damage when being moved by rushing water.
Beavers can (emphasis on can) do some serious damage by slowing up a stream until it causes a lot of damage when the dam finally breaks. That is where the major damage is done; not by the volume of water itself, but when a blockage which has held up a significant amount finally gives way and a single burst of water comes down. Remember Boscastle in Cornwall where a blocked stream gave way with devastating results. Proper management of streams involves making sure there are no blockages and thus puts people in direct conflict with beavers in any mountainous terrain. In Norway, farmers can still destroy beaver dams with full authority because the damage they can do both from flooding and when the dam breaks is well known. Ignoring this is just as negligent as not clearing the drainage channels in Somerset last year.
Victoria "local country folk do still know what they are doing but they are not permitted to do it by those who don't know what they are doing but think they do." I am a riparian owner, which means I own land on one side of a river and I am responsible for keeping my half of the river it in good order (ie not blocked with tree branches etc). Generally speaking owners get on and do the necessary and sensible maintenance without permission. All people like the council workmen who come and do bridge work, electricity workers who come and stop trees growing into the power lines say that the best thing is just get on and and do what is necessary. My farming neighbour came one time with his JCB and removed trees and a small island that had grown in the middle of the river and were likely to cause the bridge abutments to collapse. Rules and regulations devised by remote bureaucrats are best ignored in favour of commonsense.
Phillip Bratby, unfortunately most townies still expect the countryside to resemble Constable's "The Hay Wain", but still don't understand why country folk object to the suburbanisation of rural land.
Maybe if Constable had painted graffiti on Tesco supermarkets, with 3 wheeled shopping trollies and partially crushed traffic cones, it would make more sense.
Have been checking out pictures of the Alyth floods on Google. Unless those beavers have learnt to use chain-saws, and have been cutting up mature conifers (they usually go for young birch and alder trees) into manageable logs, I think it highly unlikely they were the culprits. I suspect this is being stirred up by SACS who were rabidly opposed to the reintroduction of beavers, as they were with Red Kites.
There should be an annual census like the mute swans on the Thames.
Alan Reed, 8:46: There was an Scottish National Heritage monitoring scheme, but I think it was abandoned in 2013. No doubt the SNP government thought it more important to count windmills.
I agree with Salopian. This was an extreme rainfall event which would have led to the burns breaking their banks irrespective of whether there had been any beavers (or human land management malpractices upstream). Beavers (and dead trees etc) in watercourses would only exacerbate intermediate flood events, and have a negligible if any effect in extreme flood events.
lapogus hit the nail on the head - 58mm of rain evenly over 4.5 hours in a 25 sq km catchment area was bound to cause serious flooding. The tree trunks, branches etc caught up and swept into Alyth did not act as dams and cause flooding in the town. Rather, they destroyed low level footbridges that "got in the way" as the Burn waters rose. Lesser rainfall events in recent years have come close to causing flooding in the town, without disturbing the fallen trees etc. Folk these days need someone to blame for disasters - beavers, non-tree management etc.
Dear denizens,
This would be a moment where I can mention my FIL's weather/climate prediction system. This forecast is UK centric but, based as it is on solar signals, can be used globally although obviously the Arctic and the UAE etc., are not affected by 3 or 4 degree changes to the degree (pun intended) that we are and inhabitants thereof would hardly notice the same - maybe the precipitation ;)
His discovery will gain traction over time as we have been pushing it out to systems analysts, farmers and investment managers who already see great potential in the 'what'(tangible results) but getting anyone else to take some notice is proving ... difficult.
The 'why'(underlying mechanism) remains undiscovered by any of us attempting to discern the cause(s). It may be a problem along the lines of "what are magnetism, electricity and gravity" - we can perceive their effects but know little to nothing regarding their true nature.
Aficionados of weather here in the UK, manifold as we are, will immediately see the accuracy of Ulric's 2015 forecast. He was able to show the arrival of discrete shifts in our climate to the day in 80% of cases so far this year. The other events ocurred within a 1 to 2 day window as advised many months in advance.
It is to like minded spirits I commend this knowledge because a) we have some very bad weather up ahead for several years to come for which we are ill prepared and b) his discovery knocks AGW into a cocked hat with knobs on:
http://www.agwbs.com/agw-is-fake/long-range-weather-and-climate-forecast.html
Where the author showed this damp patch arriving and when it will pass:
" ... Cooler and wetter from 5-7 July
Possible few warmer days from July 19 (not certain)
From July ~29 a strong warm burst************
..."
Still 5 days to go until the next turn and the outlook (Met Office 5 day) shows it remaining 'wet'.
:)
Here in Canada, when we had trouble with beavers, my dad would just call up our native friends and the problem was made into a fur coat.
Can't the Scottish claim some sort of ancient Celtic mythos that allows them the same "stewards of Mother Earth" crap as well? Remember, the profit is secondary.
BTW, in a very tony suburb of Montreal, some greenish types made a big noise about keeping a marsh all natural and pristine, party because of the wildlife, including beavers.
Now guess who is complaining about the bumper crop of mosquitoes this year?
Re-wilding is Monbiot's latest cause celebre, that and getting rid of sheep, he must have had a bad experience.
http://web.archive.org/web/20131204215458/http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=4175&block=75
During the last interglacial, creatures such as the hippopotamus, lion and elephant were indigenous to Britain.
Bring 'em back George.
Unbelievably wild beavers appeared on South Devon's River Otter (yes, really)
http://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/devons-wild-beavers/
They have just had kits
tonyb
@tonyb: It was not an 'unbelievable appearance', but part of a DEFRA monitored and sponsored project.
Salopian
No, the beavers turned up out of the blue. It was only after a time that defra decided to monitor them for disease.their agenda was to remove them but local pressure prevented them
http://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/devons-wild-beavers/
Read to the end of the article and you will see the sequence of events
Tonyb
Tonyb
How do you decide which year or century to rewild into?
Last year, last era, last century, last epoch? Bring back the passenger pigeon, the dodo, woolly mammoth, and sabre-toothed tiger (cat) , I say. Think how the food chain has been disrupted without them. [ :) sarc]