© Russell Savory
Joe Clements, Conservation Assistant at Lowther Estate, gives an update on Glen and Dragonfly, the two beavers introduced to an enclosure on the estate in 2021, showing why they really are ecosystem engineers!
Over the past 18 months, the two beavers at Lowther Estate have had a profound effect on the area within their fenced enclosure, and beyond. They have created a series of dams which hold back huge pools of water.
In the summer these pools hum with life, and we see lots of insect eating birds in the surrounding area. We have seen a kingfisher hunting around the beaver pools as well. Wet woodland plants such as angelica, figwort and opposite-leaved golden saxifrage are thriving in the areas where the beavers have coppiced trees and allowed dappled light through to the forest floor.
Throughout the winter we have seen a large number of geese, lapwing, snipe and teal making use of the new habitat, both around new pools of water, and through the wet grassland and muddy edges.
The leaky dam effect the beavers have created has largely redirected their stream, which now mainly flows out across the pasture, splitting into many shallow sinuous channels, which in turn feed into larger ponds and channels outside of their enclosure. So they are already having an effect on the wider landscape. During the last month, which has been very dry, we have seen many wetland areas dry out, but the areas fed by water from the beaver enclosure have stayed much wetter.
This tarn was created downstream of the beaver enclosure, by blocking some drains. It's fed by the stream flowing from the enclosure and remains wet even when other water courses run dry. It's a great example of how the moderate trickle of water constantly emanating from the beavers' leaky dams help to sustain wetlands.
This is one of the newest pools and dams created by the beavers in their enclosure.
Beavers have coppiced two unusually large willow trees here. It took them a few weeks to chop these ones down! They normally coppice much smaller trees.
Glen and Dragonfly haven’t bred yet, but we hope that 2023 is the year. We captured some lovely camera trap footage of them snuggling up to each other in the autumn, so we take this as a good sign that they are getting along! They have been busy all winter felling trees and dam building, so hopefully they will be putting their energy towards reproducing in the coming months. We will monitor this using camera traps during the summer.
All photos © Lowther Estate