Liam Creedon says one animal could be part of the solution to cut flood problems

Dredging is increasingly viewed as the magic elixir to solve the UK’s flooding woes, but could the reintroduction of the beaver provide a more long-term solution to our watery worries?

The flooding on the Somerset Levels took on almost biblical proportions with vast swathes of land rendered inaccessible and virtually uninhabitable.

But the Levels are not alone and, with the effects of climate change increasingly making their presence felt, such flooding is destined to become a permanent winter feature.

The challenge of how to deal with the increased flooding risk has finally gained political traction with river dredging and the building of flood defences, such as Oxford’s Western Conveyance Channel, all mooted as possible solutions.

But another proposal has also been suggested, one which involves letting the environment solve the problem itself — with a little help from a creature from our distant past along the way.

Wildlife charity The Mammal Society is calling for the widespread reintroduction of the beaver as they believe the mammal could use its dam-building skills alongside other man-made measures.

Beavers, which became extinct in most of Britain during the 16th century, are master engineers capable of radically altering the environment to suit their needs.

These large, semi-aquatic mammals build dams across shallow river channels.

This leads to beaver ‘impoundments’ which provide the animals with improved security and greater access to food.

Collectively these impoundments hold large quantities of water in tributaries and side streams and release it slowly into the main river downstream. This dispersal in effect ‘puts the brakes’ on flooding.

In the beaver’s absence, Britain's rivers and streams have been straightened, engineered and cleared of natural debris to deliver rainfall and field run-off to the sea as quickly as possible.

The Mammal Society argues that by restoring beavers to the landscape the process would be slowed down and the flooding problem alleviated.

Marina Pacheco, chief executive of the Mammal Society, said: “We have to acknowledge that our river systems are in poor shape and we need help to get flooding back under control in ways we can afford.

“The beaver is not the only solution, but we believe it could make a valuable, cost-effective contribution to a package of flood alleviation measures if we allowed it to re-establish on flood-prone rivers.

“Restoring the beaver would bring huge benefits in terms of flood alleviation. These unpaid river engineers would quickly re-establish more natural systems that retain water behind multiple small dams across tributaries and side streams.

“The severity of flooding further downstream would be greatly reduced at no cost to the tax payer”. The notion of beavers gnawing away once again on our river banks isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound.

In fact a large number of governments – the UK included – are now legally obliged (under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Habitats and Birds Directive), to consider the restoration of native species to their former range.

In Scotland and Wales the return of the beaver may only be a matter of years away. A trial reintroduction is taking place in Knapdale in the Scottish Highlands and an ‘unofficial’ population has become widely established on the Tay catchment. Plans for a beaver reintroduction in Wales are also at an advanced stage.