Beaver Surveys
Beaver surveys can be undertaken at any time of year by an experienced ecologist. A beaver survey will typically include a search for field signs such as feeding material, dams, caches, canals / slides, burrows and lodges.
With respect to planning and development, beaver surveys may be required if development proposals are within 20m-30m of a watercourse (river, stream or even a drainage ditch), if beavers are considered potentially present within the catchment, and if beavers could be directly or indirectly impacted by any proposals. Beaver surveys are usually required to ascertain their presence or likely absence, and if present, ascertain the general levels of activity use and effort within or near to your site, in order to help determine impacts and inform an appropriate mitigation strategy.
Beavers have been and are, continually being reintroduced to large parts of the UK and are now legally protected under national and European law. Indeed, wild beavers are thriving in the River Stour catchment in East Kent, with an established beaver population estimated to comprise several hundred individuals.
Beavers bring great opportunities including alleviating downstream flooding (mitigating the effects of drought), increasing floral and faunal diversity, and improving greenhouse gas sequestration. However, they can sometimes bring challenges including flooding in the ‘wrong places’ and damage to trees, bringing beavers into conflict with people. Outside of planning and development, to help mitigate any conflict, certain management activities can be undertaken under a licence from Natural England.
Natural England has therefore engaged with stakeholders to develop three class licences that can be used by registered individuals to respond to issues of conflict and intervene in beaver management swiftly. Many of our ecology team have undergone an intensive beaver management training course delivered by Natural England and have been awarded with a Beaver CL51 Class Licence.
This licence allows the licence holder to modify or remove beaver dams, burrows and lodges at any time of the year, to allow activities that:
- prevent serious damage to livestock, animal feed, crops, growing timber, fisheries or any other property;
- preserve public health or safety;
- conserve wild animals or plants of conservation concern; and allow scientific or educational work to be carried out.
If you are a developer and require a beaver survey in support of a planning application, or a landowner / resident concerned about beaver activity in your local area and would like to discuss some of their associated challenges and opportunities or talk about some of the beaver management options available to you, then please do get in touch with the ecology team here at PJC.
To find out more about our beaver surveys or our ecology services, please browse:
If you have a project you'd like to discuss, please call us on 01233 225365 / or send us a message.
