Beavers are set to be reintroduced in Enfield
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Enfield’s beavers are blissfully unaware of the stir they have caused in recent days. Basking in London’s spring sunshine, Yorkshire’s finest Justin Beaver and Scottish born, Sigourney Beaver, had never met prior to their release into an Enfield brook and so have spent the weekend getting to know each other while starting a dam, and maybe even the baby beaver making process.
This feel-good project has been the culmination of two years work by Enfield Council and Capel Manor College with an expert helping hand from the Beaver Trust. It’s 400 years since these semiaquatic broad-tailed rodents were hunted close to extinction for their pelts and meat but their reintroduction has significant benefits for our modern world. Our climate is changing; warmer, wetter weather will become the norm and flood alleviation is becoming vital. Beavers are described as a “keystone” species and we’re keen to explore how their dams can benefit local areas reducing pollution and flood risk while also creating wetland habitats where amphibians, birds and insects such as dragonflies can thrive.
Justin and Sigourney Beaver are enjoying their moment in the sun and hopefully their celebrity status will endure – at least in local schools where the children can follow their exploits on a planned BeaverCam and discover the project’s links to our climate emergency.
Our beaver release, the first close to a major city and urban environment, is part of our wider natural flood management, landscape restoration and rewilding work. Enfield aims to become the greenest London borough over the next ten years so it goes hand-in-hand with other pioneering programmes including the restoration of Enfield Chase, an ancient woodland where 100,000 trees have been planted in the last two years with the help of volunteers and Thames21.
In the local elections this May, Enfield Labour has pledged to plant one million trees to create an entirely new forest for London in our borough. Wild boar and wolves might be pushing the boundaries when it comes reintroducing species but we are looking at the release of goshawks and supporting kingfisher nesting and barbel breeding. I am proud Enfield is a forward-looking borough, but it turns out London’s future might depend on restoring aspects of our environmental past.
Ian Barnes is deputy leader of Enfield Council
