{"id":176039,"date":"2025-10-02T21:54:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T21:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/176039\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T21:54:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T21:54:23","slug":"beavers-set-to-become-protected-species-in-wales-under-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/176039\/","title":{"rendered":"Beavers set to become protected species in Wales under legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Beavers disappeared from Britain about 400 years ago, after being hunted to extinction for their meat and fur.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But in recent decades, they have re-emerged in fenced enclosures on nature reserves or been found living in rivers through unlicensed releases and escapes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In January 2023, the Welsh government asked Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to carry out a feasibility study on the reintroduction of beavers, saying they can boost &#8220;the health of plants, wildlife and the UK countryside&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Recent scientific evidence has shown that beaver dams trap sediments and filter pollutants from agricultural runoff, significantly reducing harmful nitrogen and phosphorus in waterways. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This natural water treatment supports the Welsh government&#8217;s goals for improved river quality and ecosystem resilience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are four managed enclosures that house beavers in Wales, and an unknown number are living in the wild.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beavers disappeared from Britain about 400 years ago, after being hunted to extinction for their meat and fur.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-176039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}