Beavers to Be Reintroduced in Britain

01Britain will soon begin a program to return beavers to the wild.

02The animals disappeared from the country in the 1500s.

03They had been heavily hunted because of high demand for their fur, meat, and a fluid they produce.

04The fluid is used to make perfume.

05Britain's Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs recently announced the program to bring back beavers to the wild.

06Officials said the first Eurasian beavers would be released soon into waterways in southwest Britain.

07The Department for Environment said beavers had already begun to return to British waterways in recent years for several reasons.

08These include legal release programs, escapes, unlawful wild releases, and natural breeding.

09As a result, there are believed to be about 500 beavers now living in the wild in Britain.

10British officials have said the return of the beaver population will be important to supporting the health of other wildlife and limiting risks of flooding.

11Beavers reshape the environment with dams that can improve conditions for other animals in the area.

12However, the idea of the animals' return has been hotly debated in Britain.

13Farmers are the main opponents to the release program.

14They express worry about possible damage the animals could cause to cropland.

15The head of the National Farmers' Union, Tom Bradshaw, has argued that landowners need to be given the right to use lethal control if beavers end up in the wrong place.

16If beavers do become a problem, the program guidelines say, as a last resort, beavers may be trapped and translocated or lethally controlled.

17Officials explained that each project would need to provide a 10-year plan to support the animals' return to the wild.

18The government has also promised assistance to farmers who agree to make space for beavers on their land.

19The French news agency AFP reports that over time, Britain has lost nearly half of its natural species.

20That information came from a 2021 report prepared for Britain's Parliament.

21Britain's Minister for Nature, Mary Cray, said that reintroducing beavers to the wild is a critical milestone for this government's plan to protect and restore our natural world.

22Rosen Campbell Palmer is with Britain's beaver trust, an aid group that supports the efforts to bring back beavers.

23She said the program launch was a landmark moment and called for widespread release permissions to be approved.

24However, Campbell Palmer said Britain was generations behind the rest of Europe, where programs have helped beavers reestablish themselves in countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland.

25I'm Brian Lynn.

26I'm Brian Lynn.