River restoration could help bring beavers back to Somerset

A novel technique to restore a river to its original state prior to any human intervention - known as stage zero - has been used for the first time at a large scale in the UK.

The method involves completely removing the channel that a river runs through and letting it reconnect to its floodplain which it may have been historically separated from to make space for roads and railways.



Get more from New Scientist:

About New Scientist:
New Scientist was founded in 1956 for “all those interested in scientific discovery and its social consequences”. Today our website, videos, newsletters, app, podcast and print magazine cover the world’s most important, exciting and entertaining science news as well as asking the big-picture questions about life, the universe, and what it means to be human.

New Scientist

[skylarkstarsmith]

Wish the sound track wasn't overlaid by music. For people with hearing issues the extraneous noise makes it hard to focus.

[complimentary_voucher]

People have forgotten what rivers actually look like, they think single-channel, concrete bedded 'rivers' are the real thing. It's sad that peoples' aesthetic expectations are going to stand in the way of a lot of rewilding because the gen pop is so removed from the reality of natural landscapes. But this is a great start. Bring on the beavers, people need emblematic fauna to identify with.

[chrisarmstrong]

It would all be a lot easier if there were fewer humans competing for the land use.

[andyalder]

Where's this with respect to the four earth dams they built in 2016 on the Aller and Horner?

[magic-eric]

The UK is a world leader in ecosystem restoration.

[frontier]

see the truth about stream restoration projects (Utube: How a stream is restored in Gaithersburg").

[biscuitheque]

At least the women are prettier in Somerset than in Devon.