So we're building a fake beaver dam on this river.
Now, I know what you must be thinking.
What mossy earth up to now?
What even is a fake beaver dam?
And what earth would you want to build for it?
Well, we're very excited to introduce you to one of our latest
project, Areas in Scotland. Glassie Farm.
A member of the North Woods Rewilding Network
where we're undergoing what we want this rather sorry looking river.
It's had a bit of a rough history, but thanks to Glassies
brilliant owner, Julian, and of course our dedicated members,
we've been able to begin restoring key parts of this riparian ecosystem.
And in this video,
we want to introduce you to the project and tell you all about our plan.
This section of the river at Glassie
is sadly a common sight across much of Scotland.
And one thing you cannot help but notice is the lack of trees.
It's the same story at
Two of our other project areas next rivers, lonely strips of water
just about holding on in a barren landscape.
A long, long history of deforestation, overgrazing and land use.
Change in Scotland
is the cause of this depleting not only the quality of the water,
the rivers themselves, but fundamentally the areas of land.
Either side we call these sections of the river the riparian zone.
These are the areas of land that connect aquatic habitats to land habitats.
And because of this, they are typically areas of extreme biodiverse city
where numerous and complex ecological interactions take place.
Seemingly simple things like leaves blowing in the wind which land
and in which the water to young salmon eating their way through all the little
aquatic invertebrates.
And of course where really impactful interactions take place
with keystone species like the beaver who move in felled trees and engineer
a completely different kind of landscape by, you guessed it, building dams.
But on our project area, none of these processes are unfolding.
In fact, there's not even one single native riverside trail.
This is where Duncan comes in.
He's an old friend of mossy Earth, and these days he helps us find good places
to restore in Scotland, particularly along the River Tay and its tributaries.
And working together with his wife, Maja, and our biologist, Ellie.
They are the team in charge of this project.
And the restoration of this stream right here where we are.
There's a clear felled site where there was conifer plantation.
We are next to a stream.
The conifers upon to to to that stream upstream of here
comes through several hundred acres of conifers as well.
So we can see that there's
there are acid flushes from time to time
through the conifer needles collect massive
and when there's a major rainfall event because
the trees are planted very close together and the very little understory,
all those needles wash off into the river enough to cause an acid flush.
So I'm just upstream from a project area.
And as you can see, I'm surrounded by conifer plantation.
These plantations really aren't good for wildlife.
And as I mentioned, this small stream is part of the River Tay catchment,
which is a stronghold for the struggling Scottish salmon population.
And acid flushes can be seriously detrimental to insects
and invertebrate populations that young salmon rely upon for feeding.
But that is not the only problem we have here.
Yes, so here we have
evidence of
exacerbated rates of erosion and this little stream,
which in this part of Scotland we call a burn is in size and into its channel.
And that disconnects it from from what was previously its floodplain.
So this is floodplain.
And you can see it's eating its way into the bank
there and getting deeper into its channel.
And is the combination of these two problems,
which has prompted us
to construct our own beaver dam, to kick start the hydrological
and then the ecological restoration of this important habitat.
But before we get into explaining exactly what building a fake beaver dam tells,
I want to introduce Jullian, who owns Glassie Farm
and whose approach to managing the land is extremely refreshing.
If you look at the land, though, it's not got much diversity in wildlife
and because it's had a lot of years with just Sitka spruce on it.
So now we're just wanting wildlife.
It's just so much more pleasant and an area to walk in and listen to.
You can sit down and listen to a skylark in the mid
spring summer and that's just gives you such a great feeling.
Julian sees the same potential, a glassy that we see in all of our project areas.
And although sometimes it can feel that things are falling apart, remember that
with each problem there's an opportunity to set things straight, to make it better.
And that's exactly what we aim to do at Mossy Earth.
And together with you, our community, we try to be part of the solution
to research, to set up and implement a variety of rewilding projects.
Our focus is on a wide diversity of different habitats and species,
and all of this is funded by our members who pay a small amount each month.
We put it together and set out these projects.
So if you're interested
in becoming a member or you want to know more, check out Mossy Earth.
There'll be a link in the description and a comment pinned down below.
Now let's go and check out our Beaver Dam.
So right here is where we're planning to construct our Dam.
The water will back up behind it, getting deeper and widening
before flowing around and creating new channels through the flood plains.
After it.
But before we can go about
constructing our beaver dam, it's really important to properly plan
and follow the correct approach for a minimum of three weeks.
Those constructing the dam have to acclimatize to life as a beaver.
They're living and swimming in the water, gnawing and nibbling branches.
I'm just getting used to working without new stubby arms.
Okay, so obviously this is a joke.
Surprisingly, we do not recommend doing any of this.
Instead, what has to happen is a process of baseline surveys.
It is really important to gather information on exactly what's
happening at Glassie now so that once we've constructed the beaver
dam, we can confidently show any changes after our intervention.
That is how good results based projects work.
And then there is also the fact that these surveys are required
in order for us to be granted the license to construct the dam itself.
Now we're going to work through a timeline to bring you up to date
on all the surveys and really everything we've done at Glassie so far.
Back in mid-January, Duncan and Dougie got started building
these explosions to help protect our newly planted trees.
We're kickstarting the process of regeneration
along the river by planting species like willow, alder and Aspen,
all species which thrive in my Perrin ecosystems.
Winter is the perfect time of year to plant trees and Duncan
and Dougie worked hard in the snow to get them in.
Wooden enclosures are very important to keep out there.
Who, given the chance, will gobble up young saplings.
This is something we have used in some of our other project
areas together with our partners along the river date.
And the results so far have showed us that the protection measures are working
as the trees are coming on.
Well, then at the end of the month, Ellie and Maja carried out the first River
Habitat survey, which collected data from a two kilometer length of the river
channel assessing the condition of the weather,
as well as all the types and quality of habitat found along the river.
But getting down the bottom of the stream where the habitat is actually pretty good
here behind you,
you've got a great example of having loads of deadwood in the system.
You can see that this is not his home to a wealth of insects
and loads of fungi as well.
And all of this will be feeding into the wider riparian ecosystem.
This section of the river is a really nice
example of what we're hoping to achieve up on our project area,
which at the minute is not currently doing a great deal for biodiversity.
The banks are collapsing due to a lack of trees and this also means
that all the benefits
that come from having woody structures in the stream are absent.
Then in early February we carried out an otter survey
which is actually required of any project that's altering the water
course as otters are protected in Scotland.
So today I've come along to film my IDA the Otter survey here on Glassie Farm.
Whoops, just nearly fell to the hole where the area we were looking at included
300 meters up and 500 meters downstream from where we'll be constructing the dam,
walking along the banks of the river,
looking for any potential evidence of otters using the area.
This includes paw prints, fur droppings, past nursery holts,
hovers and couches, which are where otters rest or call home.
Could this be a feature here?
Too far away from the river is a bit small.
Can be here.
Yeah, it can be on the floodplain or in the on the corridor.
It's too small. Will not do anything.
But it's something like this bigger than we are looking for.
Even more of this together.
This was about as interesting as it got along our survey area.
And given the degraded nature of the site, no signs of otters were found.
The final survey,
which is yet to be carried out, is the Freshwater Pearl Mussel Survey.
This is another survey required
due to their protection and the method is quite interesting,
but I'd rather wait and show you properly in the next Glassie episode.
Once these final surveys are done, we'll be waiting for a license
to be confirmed
that we can begin building the dam hopefully sometime early this summer.
This is something that we're really excited about.
We're not only hoping it kickstarts really important processes, a Glassie
this is something we're hoping we can replicate elsewhere in Scotland
to revitalize these by pairing waterways.
And for Glassie itself, we're hoping that by creating beaver habitat
that they themselves might move in as they're currently not too far away.
Species like Aspen and Willow can take off very quickly, you know,
and really get established quickly and grow quickly and spread quickly. So
I can
see a scenario within two or three years where it could
comfortably house a family of beaver here in another couple of months.
We should have another update for you from Glassie, where we should be building
the dam.
I'm very excited for it
and if you don't want to miss it, be sure to subscribe with the bell turned on.
And if you want to become a member, check out more.
Until next time. Cheers.