Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – There are over 100 beavers in Flemish Brabant. Their dams cause flooding, requiring costly maintenance. Official Tom Dehaene wants rule changes, but expert Kristin Swinnen says no changes are expected soon.
The number of beavers in Flemish Brabant is growing. According to officials, there are currently more than 100 beavers. Beavers make dams, which benefit the ecosystem but can often pose issues for humans. Dams cause water levels to rise, potentially flooding gardens and homes.
People are allowed to lower the dams to stop the flooding, but it’s a lot of work and costs money. In Overise, people had to lower the dams 3 times last year and once this February 2025. Officials mentioned that this helps to keep the water from reaching homes, but it takes a lot of time and money to keep the dams at the right level.
Are beaver protection rules causing flooding challenges?
A government official named Tom Dehaene visited a beaver dam in Overise. He said that the current rules for protecting beavers are making it hard to deal with the flooding problem. If the dams aren’t lowered regularly, the water will rise too high and could damage homes. Dehaene thinks the rules about protecting beavers should be changed so that it’s easier to manage the situation.
We have to constantly send people out to regulate the dams,
says Dehaene.
If we don’t do that, the water will reach the houses. But monitoring everything takes a lot of time and especially a lot of money.
According to Tom Dehaene, the rules protecting beavers were made when there weren’t many beavers. He mentioned that the rules helped the beavers to grow in number, which is good. But now there are a lot of beavers. He wants the rules to be more balanced so that they protect both the beavers and the people. Dehaene wants to make it easier for the government to manage the beavers so that they don’t cause so much flooding.
The strict rules date from when the beaver population was very low,
says Dehaene.
The rules allowed the population to grow, which has clearly happened in the meantime.
We therefore think it is time to review the rules,
says Dehaene.
A beaver expert named Kristin Swinnen doesn’t think the rules about beavers will change soon. She says there are still not as many beavers as there used to be, and the government wants to make sure they are spread out across the area. So, the government won’t change the rules just yet. But sometimes, the government will let people remove beaver dams if they are causing problems.
In Haacht, a beaver dam is being removed because it’s stopping a company called Aquafin from fixing the water system. After the work is done, the beavers can come back because they won’t cause any more problems. Officials mentioned that the government wants to protect beavers, they will make exceptions if something important needs to be done.
But after that, the beaver can return, because it doesn’t harm anyone there,
says Peter Maris of the Watercourse Service.
According to officials, this problem isn’t just happening in Flemish Brabant. In the Netherlands, there are now many beavers, and they’re causing problems with flooding too. In England, they have rules to protect beavers, but they also have plans to manage them so that they don’t cause too much trouble for people.
