River Ouse flooding: Council 'open to' talks about reintroducing beavers

City of York Council said it is "open" to discussing reintroducing beavers to the River Ouse

A council has said it is "open to conversations" about the reintroduction of beavers to the River Ouse as part of its plans to combat flooding.

There have been more than 20 recent flood warnings in York and businesses, including the York Dungeons attraction, have been forced to close.

Beavers build dams which then act as a natural method of slowing down water.

City of York Council said "beavers offer fantastic, natural benefits to flood and drought reduction".

Councillors are set to approve a £5.3m flood alleviation scheme on 17 January but the council's flooding team is also "open to further measures" including beaver reintroduction. 

The council's innovative flood resilience manager, Victoria Murray, said: "At present, we have no live plans to introduce beavers as part of water level management.

"However, we and partners are open to and continuing conversations about the reintroduction of beavers."

Beavers create dams that can reduce flooding

She added that reintroducing beavers to the Ouse would require "a significant amount of water to be stored across the entire 3,500-sq-km catchment to have an impact".

A spokesperson for the Yorkshire Rewilding Network said that any time a study was done with beavers, a "big reduction" in peak flows could be seen.

They added: "So the water obviously comes through but rather than there being a massive spike, it's more rounded."

According to Forestry England, beavers were heavily hunted for their fur and scent glands that produce a substance called castoreum and by the beginning of the 16th Century beavers became extinct in the UK.

Dr Rob Stoneman, director of landscape recovery for The Wildlife Trusts, said: "The first thing I would say is not to introduce beavers in York as it's too close to pumped drainage systems in the lowlands. 

"I would start beaver introductions in the upper catchments of the Ouse such as the Dales, and let them spread downstream, so that by the time they got to the drained arable lowlands, beaver co-existence would be weaved into the way we manage land rather than surprise or annoy farmers who fields suddenly flood because a beaver has burrowed through a dyke. 

"Moreover, they would have the best flood mitigation impact upstream of York."