from Sunday Herald, 25 May 2008
They were killed off more than 400 years ago, and snubbed by the last government - but now they are coming home.
A historic plan to bring beavers back to Scotland will today be given the go-ahead by the Scottish environment minister, Michael Russell. Up to four families of the dam-building mammals will be released around lochs in an Argyll woodland next spring.
Russell has swept aside objections from landowners and overturned the former Scottish Executive’s decision to reject the return of the beaver. He is keen to oversee what would be Scotland’s first ever planned reintroduction of a mammal to the wild.
“Beavers were an original victim of wildlife crime when they were exterminated and it’s time to rectify that,” he told the Sunday Herald. “I am strongly persuaded that this is the right thing to do.”
Beavers were wiped out in Scotland in the sixteenth century. They were killed for their furs, which are soft and waterproof, and for the oil they secrete, castoreum, which has medicinal benefits and was believed to enhance sexual potency.
Russell is granting the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland a licence for a five-year trial reintroduction of European beavers at Knapdale forest in mid-Argyll. In order to try and overcome some of the objections, he has imposed 31 conditions on the trial.
But he has dismissed the last government’s suggestion that the beavers should be kept out because they might damage protected oak woods. “That was frankly spurious,” he said.
Russell is also convinced that concerns about the possibility of ending the trial if it goes wrong can be overcome, as can fears about beavers spreading disease. He promised that landowners would be compensated for any damage the animals might do.
“I am delighted that this wonderful species will be making a comeback,” he said. “They are charismatic, resourceful little mammals and I fully expect their reappearance in Knapdale to draw tourists from around the British Isles – and from even further afield.”
Russell pointed out that beavers had already been successfully reintroduced in 23 other European countries. “Evidence has shown that they can have positive ecological benefits, such as creating and maintaining a habitat hospitable to other species,” he argued.
The beavers will be captured in Norway in the autumn, and then kept in quarantine for six months before being released at Knapdale next year. The animals will be tagged and tracked, and the trial monitored by the government’s wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).
“The decision is excellent news,” said SNH’s policy director, Colin Galbraith. “For the first time we will have the opportunity to see how beavers fit into the Scottish countryside in a planned and managed trial.
“No other beaver reintroduction project in Europe has gone through such a long, and thorough, process of preparation, assessment and examination.”
Russell’s move also “thrilled” the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s chief executive, Simon Milne. “This is more than just bringing back a single lost species,” he said.
“It’s about rebuilding our depleted wildlife communities and reinvigorating the natural dynamics of Scotland’s wetland and woodland habitats – to the advantage of existing as well as homecoming species.”
David Windmill, the chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, added: “Success in Knapdale will give everyone the confidence to introduce the beaver elsewhere in Scotland and look at introductions of other major species in the future.”
A dissenting voice, however, came from the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association, which represents landowners. It is worried that beavers could block salmon runs with their dams or undermine waterways with their burrows.
“This does not have universal support,” said the association’s highland manager, Drew MacFarlane Slack. “If it does get the go-ahead, I would be concerned if any of our concerns are not addressed in the licence.”
He criticised public consultation on the proposed trial as inexpert and hurried. “This has been pushed through on the back of an off-the-cuff remark by the minister,” he alleged.
Russell’s plan to review the reintroduction of the beaver was first revealed by the Sunday Herald in June 2007.
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