BEAVERS: TIME TO GET SHOT?
Return of dam-building rodent poses serious threat to farmers
Conservationists might be ecstatic about the beaver’s return to Tayside, Strathearn and Strathmore, but few farmers share their delight. Gardeners, too, have been furious at damage done by the animals, finding trees felled and ancient orchards ruined almost overnight. The Scottish Government has yet to give its verdict on the creature’s future, further fuelling arguments on both sides.
Roddy Kennedy of the National Farmers Union has worked the land in the Tay flood plain close to Aberfeldy all his life. Used to dealing with rising water most seasons since he took over the family farm, he first noticed beaver damage to trees and saplings five or six years ago. ‘I wasn’t so worried about the saplings, but I began to have concerns that the newly established beavers would burrow into the riverbanks and undermine them,’ he says. ‘We’ve had no major damage yet, but we have cleared many of their felled trees from the river. There is now a significant burrow stretching from the riverbank into the flood-bank and if we don’t tackle it soon, we will have a major breach that could prove disastrous.’
We wander along the riverbank on a dour grey day, soon after floods have caused more misery throughout Scotland. Evidence of the flooding is everywhere: a tide-mark of torn vegetation, sodden bales, and general detritus
carried by raging water. Bright yellow-orange patches on trees reveal fresh tooth marks. Beavers have been busy gnawing previously inaccessible wood easily reached on rising water levels. A stand of mature sycamores has also been attacked – all are ring-barked. ‘I am most upset to see this,’ says Roddy. ‘It has only just happened. It’s incredible what the beaver can do – you really have to admire its tenacity. But these trees will now have to be felled. The beavers have ruined them. And when they fall they will undermine the riverbank and cause further erosion. No, I am not at all happy.’
On drainage ditches and burns running into the Tay, irate farmers have been demolishing dams, sawing trunks to ground level and ripping out mature trees, leaving a wasteland in the hope of deterring the beaver. Conservationists, not surprisingly, are unimpressed, pointing out that there will be ecological repercussions from such savage, shortsighted actions.
I ask Roddy if he fears the impact on the entire local ecosystem. ‘I’d much rather trees and saplings were left as they are, as they help to hold the riverbanks in extreme flood conditions,’ he says. ‘I agree that it is an important habitat for birds and insects. I don’t want to have to do this, but we have no option.’
Would he like to see an end to all beavers? Roddy shrugs and grimaces. ‘I see great difficulty with beavers in prime farming areas, where significant drainage work has been done over the last two centuries. Beavers are totally incompatible with farming – the two cannot co-exist. The Scottish Government has a very hard decision to make, but the longer it’s left, the harder it’s going to be as the two opposing sides are now totally at loggerheads.’
On good land, such as in the Tay catchment area, he says, the situation is already out of hand. ‘I cannot see a single benefit to having beavers. If the government decides the beaver should stay, it should leave things as they are now and certainly not give them protected status. Just as we do with deer, rabbits or mink, we should be allowed to control them – otherwise it will prove disastrous.’
In the Strathmore valley, Adrian Ivory has become accustomed to dealing with beaver damage. ‘Our problems have been increasing over the past three years, with crop damage, tree damage, drainage issues, dams and collapsing riverbanks, to say nothing of the huge amount of time it takes to sort out,’ he says. ‘It’s a serious issue. I don’t want to clear all the riverbank to deter them – it would have a negative impact on the environment and other species. But, if beavers are protected, we may be forced down this route as we are constantly spending money on removing dams and it would save thousands of pounds if it was done in one. I’d hope they would then move elsewhere.’
The big problem at Adrian’s farm was that beaver dams were causing water to back up for long distances. ‘This had a major impact on the drains,’ he says. ‘We started wondering if they were broken as water was not disappearing properly off the fields. They were already full to capacity from the water in the burns due to beaver dams preventing flow.
‘When their dams are built with the aim of stopping a burn’s flow, water tries to find a way around, and undermines burn and riverbanks, leading to the collapse of flood defences, which in turn leads to further flooding. The pro-beaver lobby talks of dams filtering out
‘The beaver has no natural predators here. There are no wolves or bears to control the balance of nature’
pollution, but we see a considerable amount of diffuse pollution being generated. The amount of time and effort I have to put into something over which I have no say is considerable – I’m trying to produce quality food, but find myself walking the water courses for hours every week to check there are no new dams and to see where the latest beaver-felled trees are, or to warn staff against going near certain areas with machinery as the banks are unstable.
‘The cost of hiring in diggers and putting staff on to debris clearance is mounting all the time, as beaver numbers are rising fast.’
Unlike Roddy Kennedy, Adrian thinks that there is a place for beavers. ‘In the right areas they’d be a tourist opportunity – but not where farmers are trying to produce food for the nation. Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Scottish Government spent millions of pounds working out the best place to reintroduce beavers. They all agreed on Knapdale in the west, not Tayside or Angus where these beavers have come into existence without any licence – essentially, they are an illegal species. If farmers break the law there are consequences – a large fine, a ban on keeping livestock or even jail. But those who are responsible for this have not been penalised. They are now saying the animals should be protected, while farmers are forced to pay to repair the damage. Having no guidance on how to cope with all this makes it even harder.
‘I want the government to make a carefully considered correct decision about the beaver’s status, rather than rushing into the wrong decision due to pressure from lobby groups. Both sides must be prepared to give a little and come up with a solution that is acceptable to all.’
Across Europe, he says, beavers are encouraged on relatively unproductive higher ground, but removed and culled from low-lying productive areas. ‘We know of no country in the world that gives the beaver full protection in low-lying productive arable areas.’
Reintroduction of species is not straightforward, as he points out. ‘Look at the wild boar – it is causing havoc in this area. The beaver has no natural predators here. There are no wolves or bears to control the balance of nature. But could we cope with animals such as the lynx? In Argentina, 30 beavers were introduced and now, due to a lack of predators, there are 250,000 of them. Rabbits were introduced to Australia and became rampant, and when foxes were introduced to control the rabbits they became a bigger problem themselves. Everything is good when done in balance, with consideration given to what is already here.’