Beavers saved the British town of Pickering, North Yorkshire, from flooding that could have been caused by hurricanes by building the largest dam in the country in three years. This is reported by the Daily Star.
Photos from open sources
Pickering, with a population of 7,000, suffered from floods for many years due to raging water from the moorlands north of the town. The Environmental Protection Agency said it could not afford to build an expensive flood protection system. After that, a family of beavers was settled in the forest on the river near the city.
In three years, the beavers built a natural barrier that protected the city from flooding.
“They built a dam out of logs and sticks, and a lot of silt sprouted and strengthened the dam. Now it is almost 70 meters long, making it the largest beaver dam in the UK,” explained environmentalist Kat Bashforth.
Researchers at the University of Exeter have found that a huge dam helps divert excess water away from the city. Several additional smaller dams that the beavers have built downstream slow down the progress of the water.
“They transplanted a large number of irises from the middle of the pond along their dam to attract more animals,” Bashforth said. As a result, the number of otters increased in this area, and kingfishers and mountain wagtails began to appear more often.
Earlier it was reported that beavers left about 900 people without the Internet in the Canadian province of British Columbia. When the ISP’s repair team arrived on site, they found that the beavers had damaged and stolen pieces of conduit and fiber optics at several locations.
