Adrian Lloyd Jones: Return of the Beaver

This was a fascinating talk giving us a real insight into these wonderful creatures and an understanding of how nearly they were taken to extinction by man's hunting

With the aid of some props we really had an insight into how these creatures live and how close to the riverbank they are confined in their lifestyle

I had not realised how far the considerations of doing a managed release in Wales had moved forward so it was really interesting to hear about the work of the Welsh Beaver Project http://www.welshbeaverproject.org/home/

Adrian gave us the link for all the detailed documents that show the net benefits to wildlife, environment, and especially flood prevention http://www.welshbeaverproject.org/downloads/ and went through us the net benefits and the very few considerations that need to be taken into account and showed how easily these are dealt with

He also talked to us about the less reputable side of introductions (Beaver Bombing) which was something many of us were unaware of and a bit of research today turns up this upsetting article on National Geographic http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140804-beavers-science-environment-britain-extinct-animals/ From reading that I can see how much education is needed of people to understand that the Beaver Dams will reduce not cause flooding. It's also clear from the comments that you need to be careful dealing with reporters from any publication as there is a need to clarify the article so read down for all the facts (and some opinions)

At the end of the talk we did a straw poll on the opinion of the audience as to whether we are in support of the project and I am pleased to say we agreed 100% with the proposal and we would be really happy to see it go ahead

There is also a twitter feed @beaverafanc for updates on progress