Living with beavers: an ‘adorable nuisance’?

This chapter discusses the conflict between beavers and humans, techniques for effective management, and the role of beavers as a charismatic flagship species for restoration and conservation projects. As well as understanding the benefits that beavers can bring, it is important to accept that their presence and reintroduction can sometimes generate conflict with human interests and impose a cost (including time and financial) in terms of resources, especially in intensively managed landscapes. Techniques for the effective mitigation of beaver impacts are now well developed across Europe and North America. Many of these techniques have been developed in response to both legal constraints and a wider social interest in non-lethal wildlife-management solutions. While this may reflect the conservation status of this species, it also offers a more practical solution, as the culling of problem individuals in a highly territorial species merely creates a vacuum to be filled by dispersers. When human–beaver conflicts are analysed in cultural landscapes, it is clear that the majority arise within a relatively slim strip of habitat adjacent to freshwater habitats. Beavers are also used for recreational hunting and as a fur resource in many countries. Interestingly, the two beaver species are now meeting at several fronts in parts of Europe, after introduction of North American beavers, provoking curiosity on which may have the competitive edge. The issues concerning the introduction, management and even eradication of the North American beaver in Europe are discussed.