Three Against the Wilderness

"I love this book! Because it’s written by a homesteading pioneer, a fur trapper seeking his fortune, rather than a conservationist or an idealist, its pragmatic message about the workings of nature is all the more powerful and moving. The author, Eric Collier, a lawyer’s son from Northampton, set off for British Columbia in the 1930s and took on a fur-trapping concession on a remote area of the Chilcotin wilderness belonging to his part-Indian wife. The problem was, that the whole area had already been hunted out decades before. Even the trees were dying. In order to restore the region’s water resources and try and make a life for himself, his wife and his son, he resorted to rebuilding, by hand, the old beaver dams – and a miracle happened. Wildlife returned, including species that he was then able to trap sustainably. And what is more, farmers downstream, who were about to abandon the land because they were ruined by summer droughts and spring floods, decided to remain because suddenly their land had become farmable again. It’s an adventure story, first and foremost, and beautifully written, but also a paean to the creative impacts of a keystone species. And ultimately, the happiest ending of all – he is able to restore the beavers themselves and can sit back and let them do the work. The North American beaver is, indeed, a distinct species, with 40 chromosomes to the Eurasian’s 48. The two never interbreed, even in captivity. But nevertheless, in appearance, behaviour and environmental impact, the American beaver is virtually indistinguishable from its European cousin. They are astonishing hydrological engineers and in even a tiny area, they can create habitats that are rocket fuel for biodiversity. In an enclosed 7 acre site run by the Devon Wildlife Trust, a small family of beavers have totally transformed a 200m canalised stream into a braided system of channels, willow coppice and ponds with 1,000 square metres of open water, in just a few years. Aquatic invertebrates, beetles, bats, lizards, amphibians and flora have proliferated and endangered culm grassland is returning to this tiny area. And, just as importantly, the beavers have been shown to have a dramatic impact on water purity, and on flow, evening out the release of water in times of drought and flood. This is a study site for Exeter University and the results are astonishing. We have to remember, we once had beavers by the million in the British Isles – our ecology evolved alongside beavers and benefitted from their presence. European reintroductions of beavers, where they’ve been brought back from the brink of extinction over the last 50 years or so, have proved incredibly successful and they are now widely regarded for the beneficial role they play in ecosystems – even by anglers, some of the beaver’s most ardent opponents in Britain. A surprising number of people, perhaps confusing them with otters, think that beavers eat fish. Even C S Lewis portrays Mr and Mrs Beaver in Narnia tucking into trout and potatoes. But their characteristic buck teeth would be useless in a fish fight. Rather than predate on fish, beavers actively encourage them. Their dams and lodges provide habitat for invertebrates and micro-organisms – food for fish – as well as protection for small fry against predation by larger fish, kingfishers and herons. So, if the Bavarians – who have one of the most managed agricultural landscapes I can think of – can live with a population of 18,000 beavers, we should be able to work out a way of living with them here."