We have some exciting news. Today (Friday 7 October) we submitted a licence application to NatureScot to move a family of beavers (2-6 animals) from Tayside to our Loch Lomond nature reserve. This application represents a huge amount of work looking not only at the ecological suitability of the area, but also engaging with the local community, listening and addressing any concerns.
If successful, it could also represent a huge milestone for beavers in Scotland.
The Scottish Government formally recognised beavers as a native species and gave them protected status here in 2019 – the same year that one was first recorded foraging in the Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve. Then last November, they announced that they would actively support the expansion of beavers including promoting translocations. If our application is successful, Loch Lomond could become the second beaver translocation outside of Knapdale following one at Argaty, a family run farm in Perthshire, in winter 2021/22.
Beavers are a crucial part of our wetland ecosystems, capable of creating complex and dynamic features that benefit species from birds to amphibians and dragonflies to fish. With current ambitions to halt nature loss by 2030, beavers are a key species that benefit a whole raft of wildlife through their own restoration. In light of this, a strategy for beavers in Scotland has been published, (Scotland’s Beaver Strategy 2022 – 2045), which seeks to actively expand the Scottish beaver population.
We see our licence application as directly contributing to this aim whilst also reducing the number of beavers that are currently shot under licence in Tayside by providing an alternative home in Scotland to these amazing ecosystem engineers. Speeding up the return of beavers to Loch Lomond (individuals were spotted in 2019 and 2020) will also be good for the wetland habitat and wildlife on and around our reserve.
A trail camera image captures a beaver chewing a tree in Loch Lomond in 2019
Whilst we, and many others, may be excited about the idea of more beavers in the Loch Lomond area, we are aware through our engagement that others have concerns about living alongside beavers again. We have endeavoured through our engagement process to answer as many of these concerns as possible, whilst also highlighting the management and mitigation system that is already in place in Scotland to deal with any potential negative impacts.
The conversations around beavers, what they can and cannot do and what help is available if impacts are experienced, need to continue and, regardless of the outcome of our licence application, we are keen to keep these discussions alive. However, we are hopeful that we've shown that moving a family of beavers to the Loch Lomond NNR, using our reserve as a release site, is good for beavers, good for biodiversity and good for people, and that we’ll get the permission to rehome a family later this year.
You can read more about the proposal, read the FAQs and find our licence documents on our Loch Lomond blog: https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/loch-lomond-and-black-devon-wetlands/posts/beavers
Header photo: close up of a beaver in water. Credit: Wild Intrigue.
Fabulous news ;-) Fingers crossed you get the go ahead ...just another excuse for me to visit ;-)
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)