Why the most important thing about beavers' return to Glen Affric is their effects on humans
Ensuring local people’s concerns about beaver reintroductions are taken seriously is crucial if Scotland is to benefit from these ecosystem engineers’ hard work
The reintroduction of beavers to Glen Affric after an absence of some 400 years is a welcome development. Aside from being fascinating and beautiful creatures in their own right, beavers create wetlands that benefit a whole array of species.
The most obvious are perhaps fish and amphibians, but insects also thrive in the wetlands created by beaver dams, providing food for birds, bats and small mammals. The dams also help to reduce flooding by slowing down the flow of water during heavy rains.
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However, the most important aspect of the Glen Affric reintroduction is the recognition that beavers can also sometimes cause problems, coupled with a commitment to address any should they occur.
If beavers truly are to become “an integral and unremarked part of Glen Affric”, as hoped, the promised “ongoing monitoring” must be taken seriously. Otherwise, beavers could end up becoming the victims of a similar political backlash to the one which stymied an overly ambitious plan to introduce highly protected marine areas in Scotland’s seas.
That said, we wish the new arrivals, and their neighbours, well.
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