Beavers significantly modify landscapes. As a result beaver activities can result in conflicts with some riparian land use by humans. Such conflicts predominantly result from beavers damming watercourses, burrowing into the banks of water bodies and foraging for food including felling trees.
Given that beavers do not like to move far from water, the majority of their activities take place in the riparian zone (i.e. the area running adjacent to a river or stream) and are recorded within a maximum distance of thirty metres (thirty-three yards) from the edge of a freshwater body. For this reason, it is important to leave space, as far as possible, for beavers along the water’s edge and restore riparian habitat. However as the table below shows, there are a number of interventions humans can make to reduce the impact of beaver damming, burrowing and foraging where this does occur.
| | | |
| Loss of ornamental vegetation | Temporary / deterrent fencing Permanent / deterrent fencing Planting less palatable species Planting sacrificial buffer strip Livestock & deer grazing management | Create more wetlands, increased bank resilience, restoration of natural processes and naturalised riparian zone |
| Downstream effects of dam failures | Moving land activites to higher ground and renaturalising floodplain. Use oversized culverts / larger bridge arches | Create more wetlands, increased bank resilience, restoration of natural processes and naturalised riparian zone |
| Undermining of infrastructure | Greenbank protection / reinforcement Livestock exclusion / grazing regimes Hardcore infrastructure / stone facing | Create more wetlands, increased bank resilience, restoration of natural processes and naturalised riparian zone |
