Beaver re-introduction would be box ticking, says the CLA. Meanwhile, the NFU has appealed for caution over proposals to reintroduce beavers to England.

The NFU says that bringing beavers back to England would be a risky move that could involve significant costs at a time when funding should be used to address the declining levels of existing wildlife.

Natural England, along with the People's Trust for Endangered Species, has released the report Reintroducing Beavers to England, which looks into the viability of reintroducing beavers to the English countryside after 500 years of extinction in this country

But Andrea Graham, the NFU's countryside adviser, said the views, concerns and objectives of farmers and land managers had to be taken into consideration before any decision on reintroduction could be made. "The plan must include a clear idea of any long-term potential economic and physical impacts on the English landscape," she says. "This should include flood risk or, crucially, any potential for disease transmission which becomes more relevant as new and emerging exotic diseases continue to threaten our native animals and wildlife."

Graham adds that while the union recognised that European beavers could have benefits for river habitat creation and biodiversity, there were no naturally resident predators of beavers in England. This means that any reintroduction plan had to include a very clear exit strategy and robust practical control measures. However, the adviser pointed out that this could be extremely difficult given recent events. "Reported escapes from a stock-proof enclosure in Devon over the New Year period, and the fact the escapees managed to travel a considerable distance, demonstrate that any controlled reintroduction could prove difficult to contain," she says. "[There are] a number of actions that Natural England consider essential before any reintroduction could take place, but many of these actions would appear to carry significant costs.

"Given the economic climate and the fact we should be addressing the challenges to halt the decline of our existing resident wildlife and the ‘shallow support from the public' for any such reintroduction, this would seem to be a costly luxury."

CLA President Henry Aubrey-Fletcher says: "The English countryside has changed enormously since beavers were last seen here in large numbers. We have a landscape unlike that of much of the rest of the world - one that has been actively farmed for hundreds of years.

"Our biggest concern is where the beaver would fit into today's modern, working English countryside. At a time when we should all be working to protect supplies of food and the natural environment, it seems ridiculous to be introducing a species that would threaten both.

"Beavers will destroy crops – particularly wheat and maize. Dams will restrict movement and migration. Beavers will damage woodlands by felling some trees and gnawing the bark away from others. And beaver burrows will damage river banks and their dams will increase the risk of flooding."

"Natural England seems determined to cram every last species back into a landscape that is not the same as when these animals left. While it is easy to become sentimental about species reintroduction, this fact cannot be ignored."