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‘An amazing story’: Devon beaver reintroduction deemed a success

Thursday, January 30, 2020

A colony of beavers in a Devon river has brought social and economic benefits that "far outweigh the costs", according to a team of experts that is concluding a five-year study of the reintroduction scheme".

While mystery surrounds how the beavers, which have been extinct in England for 400 years, originally colonised stretches of the River Otter, Natural England confirmed in 2015 that the colony could remain in the area on a temporary basis, under a licence granted to the Devon Wildlife Trust.

A balance must be struck between rewilding the Lake District and farming

Thursday, January 30, 2020

The Lake District was once teeming with life, undisturbed by that most invasive of species - human beings. The valleys in particular were densely forested and marshy, which is evident at High Street, where Roman conquerors chose to build their road going over the fell rather than through the bog of the valley below.

Restoring Process in Rivers: Results from the 15th Annual Berkeley River Restoration Symposium at UC Berkeley

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

How can we restore true geomorphic and ecological processes in rivers? This question was addressed in the 15th Annual Berkeley River Restoration Symposium (7 December 2019), in keynote talks by Hervé Piégay of CNRS (the French national research agency) and University of Lyon, and Damion Ciotti of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  Piégay’s talk, Revitalizing rivers: learning from a few European case studies,’

Many urban rivers are hidden underground – ‘daylighting’ them would bring nature back to cities

Monday, December 16, 2019

Ever noticed how few rivers you can see in most city centres? It’s easy enough to spot the big, usually tamed, main river such as the Thames in London, the Seine in Paris, the Aire in Leeds or the Don in Sheffield. But you will be hard-pressed to find any of their tributaries.

Focus on invasive species

Friday, December 13, 2019

A committee of backbench MPs has called for a “citizens’ army” to tackle the growing threat from invasive species. Under the plan, proposed by the Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee, trained volunteers would help identify and respond to biosecurity outbreaks, modelled on a system developed in New Zealand.

River-Friendly Businesses honoured as scheme sparks growing environmental network

Friday, December 13, 2019

Local, regional, national and global firms have secured River-Friendly Business status through an initiative which is helping companies work together to tackle water pollution.

Run by charity Trent Rivers Trust (TRT) and backed by the Environment Agency and Severn Trent, the accreditation scheme, which was launched in 2018, awards businesses based within the Trent catchment Bronze, Silver and Gold status for helping to improve their local water environment. The overriding message is, “Only rain down the drain.”

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