LOBBY GROUP Rewilding Britain has launched a new report claiming that rewilding the UK’s landscapes would help mitigate flood risk by creating greater water holding capacity upstream.
Britain’s flood defences are once again high on the political agenda, as Westminster MPs ponder how best to manage the UK’s environment outwith EU regulations. While farm lobby groups hope that this might mean a more relaxed attitude to allowing ditch, stream and river maintenance, the rewilding campaign hopes that the moment has come to go radically in the other direction, and allow natural processes to regulate floodwaters.
As an example of what they consider successful rewilding, the campaigners cite the case of the beaver reintroduction trial in Devon, which has seen beavers dramatically alter the landscape, stimulating the revival of a natural wet woodland. The trust says that this has significantly increased water storage while slowing the flow of water downstream – valuable services both at times of drought and after storms.
Director at Rewilding Britain, Helen Meech, said: “With one in six properties in the UK currently at risk of flooding, a situation likely to be exacerbated by climate change over coming decades, it is time to rethink our approach to managing flood risk.
“Flooding is a natural part of a river’s annual cycle, but problems occur when land is overgrazed, rivers are straightened and trees and wildlife removed. Such measures reduce the capacity of the landscape to absorb excess water and slow floodwater flows. Our report highlights the ways in which rewilding can substantially reduce flood risk downstream, protecting communities at a fraction of the cost of traditional flood defences.
“With MPs currently consulting on new approaches to management of Britain’s natural environment post-Brexit, we feel it is high-time we allowed landscapes the space they need to rewild, creating natural wetlands and bringing back the wildlife that was once common to Britain.”
But the rewilders’ enthusiasm is not shared by the farming unions. NFU Scotland’s deputy director of policy, Andrew Bauer commented: “Whilst a lot has been written about the subject of natural flood management, we are yet to see it coming to fruition in a way that will really make a difference. 
“Many of Scotland’s farmers and crofters already play their part in managing flooding for the benefit of others. If this is to be further developed, then it would be important that they receive compensation for this service covering the losses they may incur in sacrificing land to deliver it.
“NFUS is ready and willing to work with any group that wants to find solutions to flooding, whilst also accepting the critical importance of protecting our limited but precious resource of productive farmland.”