Beavers help rewild Czech nature park before authorities can

DW (English)

In the Czech Republic's Brdy nature park, authorities wanted to restore wetlands. But beavers beat them to it.

Transcript

00:00He looks cute, works quietly, and above all doesn't want a penny for the job.

00:07Just some peace and quiet.

00:09But these beavers in the Czech Nature Reserve of Burdi

00:12have violated all of the country's building and planning regulations,

00:16and probably also the European Union's working time directive.

00:20And they're now being celebrated for it.

00:23Initially, Bohumil Fischer wanted to get the diggers in here.

00:27The plan was to rewild the straight drainage ditches in the former military area

00:32so that the meadows below the ponds could revert back into wetlands.

00:36It took six years of planning before the construction work could finally begin.

00:41But Bohumil Fischer arrived too late. It was already done.

00:46The beavers did our job for us.

00:50And now they're doing the maintenance work for free.

00:52As long as the animals live here, they'll take care of the dams.

01:04There used to be dry meadows here.

01:07Now Fischer can barely get through with rubber boots.

01:10A beaver clan has been constructing its home here for four years.

01:14The drainage ditch is still straight,

01:16but beaver dams retain sediment

01:18and so protect the sensitive population of rare stone crayfish

01:21in the Klabava River.

01:25Beavers are true workaholics.

01:27A single animal can fell up to 200 trees a year.

01:31The beavers have already surpassed

01:33the Park Administration's construction plans,

01:35an invaluable help in the literal sense of the word.

01:38We've estimated the costs

01:44if we'd had to do the beavers' work ourselves.

01:47Based on the area of the wetland

01:49and the estimated list prices,

01:51the beavers have saved us around 30 million koruna.

01:54That's 1.2 million euros.

01:59So they're not just cute.

02:01They're absolute treasures.

02:03And maybe next time,

02:05the furry civil engineer

02:06should also get the planning contract.

02:10The beaver was much more creative than our project.

02:13It has a much better feel for the topography

02:15than our technical approach.

02:19All in all,

02:20a happy ending for humans and busy beavers alike.

02:23With a clear and simple message.

02:26Sometimes nature knows best.

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