‘No perfect solution’ to end beaver resentment

With the numbers of beavers increasing and the area they are colonising spreading out from the Tay catchment area, there was a great deal of resentment on show yesterday among farmers affected by their dam building, tree destroying, river bank damaging activities.

Meeting in Coupar Angus which is the hub of the problem with the re-introduced species, farmers and landownersheardandrew Bauer, deputy policy director with NFUS admit, prior to listing the requirements of the proposed licensing system for beavers, that there was no perfect solution.

The best that could be hoped, he said, was “robust management” with the population expected to increase further and to continue to spread over an ever widening area.

To help it formulate licensing proposals, Scottish Natural Heritage had carried out a survey which indicated a beaver population in the low hundreds.

This was met with a mixture of incredulity and derision by those living and working alongside the streams and burns now colonised by beavers. It was suggested the true

0 The beaver population could run into four figures beaver population could easily run into four figures. The survey did show the spread of the species; not just along river banks to include most of the catchment basin of the Tay but also in isolated pockets such as down in Clackmannanshire where so called ‘pioneer pairs’ had been spotted.

The licensing proposal which forms part of the Scottish Government’s management plans for beavers requires land owners to satisfy three main conditions prior to getting a licence to shoot.

The first is where there is damage to a crop or where there is a risk to public health and safety.

The second is where other methods of control have been tried and failed and the third is proof that any licence to shoot will not affect the conservation status of the beaver.

In discussing those requirements, it was obvious, there was still a great deal of resentment against those who had introduced the species back into the country; an act which would be illegal now.

Several of the farmers attending the meeting pointed out that all the licence requirements involved additional costs and management time. Something that would not be necessary if the issue had been dealt with ten years ago following the introduction.