(c) Rachel Bradshaw
It's been one year since we released beavers at Hatchmere Nature Reserve. As part of a five-year 'nature-led' project, a pair of beavers were released into a 10-acre enclosure to save and restore the wetland ecosystem at Hatchmere Nature Reserve.
Below are some highlights from the last 12 months with Kevin Feeney, Senior Living Landscape Officer.
From spotting the first beaver footprints in Cheshire for over 400 years, to discovering newly formed dams, it's been a wonderful 12 months.
- Within six weeks, there was plenty of evidence of the beavers exploring their new surroundings and leaving markings on trees.
- Within three months, they were feeding further away from the release pond with lots of trails appearing on regular routes.
- After eight months we were took a virtual tour of the site to explore how it was beginning to change.
Photo: Natalie Webb. Pond within Hatchmere Nature Reserve beaver enclosure.
Our beavers, Willow and Rowan, got to work quickly on building their first lodge. Now one year on, several lodges have been built on the site. These are the beavers' home which offer them shelter, however these are also a small ecosystem of their own!
Our camera traps have revealed a whole host of other wildlife using these well placed piles of wood. The decomposition of the wood has revealed some interesting fungi, the crevices have made homes for invertebrates and birds seem to be using them as a feeding station. Camera traps have revealed other mammals using these including fox cubs, rats and polecats.
Watch our footage of the beavers busy at work building their new home. We've also captured some great footage of other wildlife on the site.
During the summer the beavers seemed to favour vegetation rather than trees. Trails could be seen over the meadow with obvious feeding on plants such as common hogweed and Himalayan balsam.
Both these plants can be dominant in wildflower meadows but have been successfully thinned out at Hatchmere by our beavers. This creates space for other wildflowers to flourish.
Now winter has arrived the beavers have changed their diet back to trees. They have begun by felling some larger willows on the edge of the stream.
This will let light back to the currently bare earth beneath the tree. We expect to see an explosion of ground vegetation in the spring.
The beavers make use of almost all of the tree. Branches and bark will be stripped but the larger stem will be left to rot, creating great habitat for other wildlife.
The beavers have been busy building several dams. They have also done a good job of re-shaping the ditch. This is a very strategic attempt to hold water on site which has been very successful.
Beavers instinctively build dams to wet areas. Did you know that they do this so they can reach more food sources whilst still being in or close to the water, safe from predators?
Usually the ditch would hold just a few inches of water, which makes its way quickly through the site and into Hatchmere lake. Now this few inches is over a metre in depth.
This helps to slow the flow of water into Hatchmere lake, allowing time for sediments to drop and for plants to catch and clean the water before it enters the lake.
Beavers are nature’s engineers and we have been privileged to witness their extraordinary ability to naturalise rivers and wetlands, improving them for wildlife.
We know that beavers have the potential to play an unrivalled role in nature’s recovery. The Wildlife Trusts have been working to bring beavers back to the wild for many years.
We now need your help to secure their safe return to the wild. The Government has launched a public consultation for a national beaver strategy and we need your support. We need an ambitious plan that will see beavers reach their potential to restore our rivers and wetlands for the benefit of local people and wildlife.
We have seen the benefits that beavers can bring to Hatchmere. This is why we need an ambitious strategy for managing the return of beavers to be the very best it can be. Please back our call for the safe return for beavers to the wild.
Let's bring beavers back.
