During a crisis meeting about the deadly floods that hit Poland in recent weeks, Tusk said beavers were a problem that needed to be dealt with.
“Rapid changes are needed when it comes to the presence of beavers on dikes,” he added.
“Sometimes you have to choose between your love for animals and the safety of cities, villages and the stability of dikes.”
Tusk argued that beavers dig into dikes, which exacerbates flooding. He added that he would back any actions within the law to limit the presence of beavers on dikes.
Over the past weeks, Poland has witnessed some of its worst flooding in decades. Torrential rain from Storm Boris caused rivers to overflow, resulting in the deaths of 16 people in eastern Europe, including nine in Poland, and the displacement of thousands.
On Thursday, Miłosz Motyka, a deputy minister of climate and environment, told Polish news outlet Wirtualna Polska that “it’s not that this will immediately involve shooting everything left and right, because binding decisions are always made by the regional director of environmental protection, based on an analysis of the situation.”
Beavers not to blame, says expert
However, the prime minister has come under fire for blaming beavers.
Andrzej Czech, a biologist and beaver expert, thinks Tusk’s argument is groundless. He told TVP World that people often mistake two different types of dikes.
“There are the flood-prevention dikes, and those are usually not anywhere near the flowing waters, so beavers are not interested in them at all. On the other hand, there are dikes around smaller artificial human structures, such as the ones around fishing lakes, and those can be damaged by beaver activity,” he said.
He added that there are “easy measures” people can take to prevent beaver damage at artificial lakes, like placing a net around the dikes.
“Generally, in normal conditions, beavers prevent flooding. They create dams on little rivers, and that’s how water cascades are created.” The dams act as blockages in the river, causing the water flow to slow down.
In March, the UK government reported the success of a program launched five years ago to reintroduce beavers to southeastern England, as part of a flood mitigation strategy.
The initiative “successfully reduced the impact of flooding and drought by storing millions of liters of water over five years,” the government wrote on its website.
Pressure from hunting lobby?
So why did Poland’s premier blame beavers? Czech thinks it has to do with the influence of the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL) in Tusk’s coalition government.
“To keep the current coalition stable, the hunters’ lobby linked with the PSL was first given a culling license to reduce the population of wild boars. Then the government voted to decrease the protected status of wolves. And finally, now: the beavers,” he said.
Earlier this year, EU member states were asked to vote on a proposal put forward by the European Commission on reducing the protected status of wolves, drawing criticism from conservationists. Poland was quick to vote in favor of the proposal.
‘Climate change on steroids’
Rather than beavers, Marek Józefiak, a spokesperson for Greenpeace, attributes the flooding in Poland to the climate crisis. He told TVP World that “these floods used to happen every 100 years. Now they occur every decade. It’s climate change on steroids.”
He added that “unless we shift away from fossil fuels, we may look back on the 2024 floods as a mild event."
Climate activist Martyna Leśniak, who was involved in emergency relief efforts last week in her flood-stricken home city of Wrocław, southwest Poland, told TVP World she believed blaming the floods on beavers was “outrageous.”
Rather than scapegoating beavers, she would prefer to see Tusk’s government make changes in its climate policy – for instance, by overturning the previous government’s plan to invest 300 billion zlotys in the expansion of highways over the next few years.
