TAYSIDE FARMERS have met with Scottish environment minister Dr Aileen McLeod to highlight their concerns about the impact of the area's burgeoning escaped beaver population.
Dr McLeod travelled to meet potato farmer Peter Grewar at East Ardler Farm and beef and arable farmer Adrian Ivory at Strathisla Farms, both near Meigle, in a visit organised by landowners' body Scottish Land & Estates.
Walking the Camno and Baikie burns, the minister was shown how reliant the low-lying farmland around Meigle is on field drainage systems - and the problems that can occur if drainage channels become blocked by beaver dams.
Next month, the Dr McLeod is due to receive a report from Scottish Natural Heritage outlining options for the future of the beaver population in Scotland, after which a decision will be taken as to whether they will stay in Scotland and, if so, what their status in terms of protection and management will be.
Since May 20098, there has been an ongoing official trial of reintroduced beavers in Knapdale, Argyll, but the unofficially released population that has been spreading up and down the Tay and its tributaries over the last decade or so has provided a far more vivid picture of how the animals would affect farm land management.
On her visit to Tayside, the minister was joined by members of the Tayside Beaver Study Group - including Scottish Land & Estates, NFU Scotland, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board, ConFor and Scottish Natural Heritage - which has been carrying out a study looking at the beavers' impact on the land, along with their health and genetic diversity.
Dr McLeod said: "Today I had the opportunity to see the impact of beavers in the local area and to hear about mitigation and management methods. The work of the Tay Beaver Study Group which brought together a wide range of interested parties to examine the impact of beavers and implications for management locally has provided valuable information.
"I am awaiting advice from SNH which will set out the impact of beavers, including the benefits to biodiversity and economic benefits through tourism, provided by the presence of beavers in Scotland."
SL&E member Mr Ivory said: "There may be parts of Scotland where beaver can exist without too many problems, but that is not the case on low lying agricultural ground where the increasing water levels they create is a concern. Experience from other parts of Europe tells us that beaver come into conflict with human activity in a number of different ways and they have to be robustly managed to avoid this getting out of hand."
-For in-depth news and views on Scottish agriculture, see this Friday's issue of The Scottish Farmer or visit www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article