The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Beavers upsetting golfers on island
Perth’s urban beavers have been residents at Moncreiffe Island since at least 2017, and they are making their presence known.
And now they are about to become a much more common part of our landscape.
James Sievwright, head greenkeeper at King James VI Golf Club on Moncreiffe Island, said: “On the course we’ve probably lost about 20 trees I would say, to the beaver.
“We’ve only really noticed it in the last five years. Before that we never had any trouble at all.”
James has a live-and-letlive attitude to the island’s recent incomers.
But when asked if the presence of beavers in Perth has any positives, he adds: “Not for us at the golf course.
“It costs us time tidying up the trees because we’ve got to cut them down and take them all away.
“If you’re losing 20 trees over five years, if you keep that going over how many years, it’s a lot of trees you’re losing.”
Scotland’s beaver population was hunted to extinction in the 16th Century, but how they reappeared in the Tay is a matter of debate.
The ancestors of the beavers in urban Perth are believed to have once been kept privately.
This is a separate population to the beavers legally reintroduced at Knapdale on the west coast of Scotland as part of the Scottish Beaver Trial, which started in 2009.
Donald Fraser, head of wildlife management at Naturescot, says it is likely a family of around four beavers have made Moncreiffe Island their home.
He added: “Woodlands are dynamic habitats which naturally see loss and replacement of individual trees, even in the absence of beavers.
“Beaver felling also opens up patches in the canopy which creates a mosaic of different habitats within woodlands, where many species can then thrive.”
Moncreiffe Island is also home to allotments run by Perth Working Men’s Garden Association.
According to locals, nature enthusiasts keen to catch a glimpse of the industrious beavers are best to keep a look out at nightfall.
Despite tending an allotment for the past nine years, William Fernie has yet to spot the elusive creatures.
But he says a fellow allotment holder had seen three beavers on the island one evening.
“They don’t bother me,” adds William, 69.
“As long as they stay on this side and I’m on that side. I wouldn’t chase them away.”
However, Heather Macdonald, who chairs Perth Working Men’s Garden Association, has “mixed feelings”.
“They’re just going to breed and keep destroying trees and all that’s being said to us all the time is preserve trees, plant trees.”
Adult beavers can weigh up to 70lb and are not threatened by any natural predators.
However, their young, called kits, are vulnerable
to otters, foxes and large birds of prey.
“My only concern is how they control them,” says Heather.
“It’s all very well, but it’s the way they live.
“They dam rivers, they form wetlands.
“It helps the birds – it helps a lot of things – but I don’t see it helping people.
“It’s nice that they’re back, but they have to be controlled.”
Elsewhere in Tayside, the first translocation licences have been granted to move beavers where they are damaging farmland.
In a first since the releases at Knapdale, two families of beavers have now been relocated to the Argaty Red Kites centre near Doune.
The move meant the animals’ lives were spared.
They would otherwise have been subject to lethal control licences.
But Mr Fraser from Naturescot says there
are no plans to move the Moncreiffe Island beavers on.
He says there is no evidence that beavers are “causing significant detrimental impacts to land or infrastructure in the City of Perth that can’t be managed by mitigation measures”.
Instead, Naturescot staff plan to look at options for protecting trees on the island.
“We have recently been in contact with the Perth and Kinross Council greenspace ranger responsible for Moncreiffe Island, who we understand will be liaising with volunteers to work on tree protection measures.
“We would be very happy to speak to the allotment community to understand the issues they’ve identified and offer mitigation solutions where necessary, as well as discussing ways to protect trees with the golf club.”