Beavers stop station from flooding, ecologists say

A colony of beavers reintroduced to an area of west London has helped prevent a railway station from flooding, according to the project behind their return.

The Ealing Beaver Project says, since the mammals moved in, Greenford station, downstream from the animals' wetland home at Paradise Fields, no longer floods after heavy rain.

The beavers slow the flow of water during downpours and create wetlands that hold it back, easing pressure on the drainage system further downstream.

The project has also said the semi-aquatic rodents are thriving with at least two new kits born this year.

Sean McCormack, a vet and conservationist with the project, said that the river water once took minutes to rush through the system into Greenford but now seeps down through a series of dams and complex wetlands.

"They're slowing the flow when we have heavy rainfall events.

"They're sinking the flow as well into the ground because the ground here is wetter, even surrounding the river itself, and they're creating these complex wetlands that basically draw down that water and hold it for longer," he said.

He added: "Now it takes hours for it to percolate through each dam and it's worked. The second winter that they were here, there was no flooding downstream.

"Third winter which has just passed, no flooding has occurred in that targeted zone downstream."

Beavers, nature's engineers, were hunted to extinction in Britain centuries ago, prized for their fur, meat and scent glands. They returned to Ealing in 2023, and have been reshaping the landscape ever since.

Since their reintroduction to London three years ago, the colony has been prospering.

The kits born last week appear in the evening and local residents in Paradise Fields have been gathering with cameras to film the mother and her babies after dark.

"I'm a hardened scientist, but it's even warmed the cockles of my heart," McCormack said.

"They are super, super cute. The first one came out last week and it was being rolled around by mum, and she was almost dunking it in the water to get it waterlogged, because they're really fluffy and buoyant when they first come out.

"It was just amazing to see that interaction."

Nadya Mirochnitchenko, an ecologist with the project, said the wildlife around the brook had transformed.

"We have seen an explosion in terms of the invertebrates that are coming here," she said.

"We're seeing more birds coming to the site, and we have recorded at least two new bat species.

"It's been really great to watch this neglected site, that was being overshaded and choked out, starting to open up and get more biodiversity."

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