It was Mary Obrien who inspired this graphic, back during her pod cast interview when she said abandon beaver sites were like ghost towns.
Now it looks like the National Trust in Scotland got the memo!
NTS backs re-introduction of beavers to Scotland
Despite acknowledging that they’re not always “good neighbours”, the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has become the latest organisation to add its voice to calls for wild beavers to be re-introduced to the country.
In a policy statement published today, NTS describes the Eurasian Beaver as a “a key element of our native fauna” and says its introduction will bring “many significant benefits to Scotland’s countryside, in terms of restoring native ecosystems, contributing to biodiversity, enhancing natural wetland processes, and promoting tourism”.
“The beaver is a crucial element in our countryside which plays an important role in the conservation of other wildlife,” said NTS’s Nature Advisor Lindsay Mackinlay. “Conservationists call it a keystone species because its presence has such a major impact on the natural environment and its wildlife. Scotland is currently much the poorer without it.“
Hooray for Scotland! And hooray for the free beavers on the river Tay and all their supporters. This was truly a major accomplishment at almost every level; research, outreach, education and public subversion. Honestly I couldn’t be happier for them, and even thought it’s not yet official, its looking like the anglers will have to put up with the flat-tails.
Our own beavers were kinder to us last night, with four visible including Dad and Jr. We were treated to a full show because there was a newish mom with 11 baby ducks, a turtle, two green herons roosting in the tree, and a fair amount of beavers! It’s wonderful to be back in the season of life again, but we’re all impatient for kits.
Rusty sent this photo Saturday, which Peter Moyle was kind enough to ID as a large mouth bass getting eaten by a night heron. He said he is always happy when a native predator eats a nonnative one.
