Trees for Life charity puts case for governmental commitment to reintroducing beavers
The award-winning conservation charity, Trees for Life, is saying today that allowing beavers to be reintroduced to Scotland would be a golden opportunity, offering wide-ranging environmental, social and economic benefits.
The Scottish Government is due to decide on whether Eurasian beavers will be allowed to live freely in Scotland after an absence of some 500 years and in the run up to this decision, Trees for Life is urging ministers to recognise the beaver fully as a resident, native species.
Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s Founder. says: ‘Allowing this native species to return would offer Scotland huge benefits. Beavers are superb ecosystem engineers and could transform and greatly improve the health of our rivers and forest ecosystems, help restore our depleted wetlands and reduce flooding – while substantially boosting wildlife tourism.
Beavers play a crucial ecological role and provide a range of important benefits for other species. They coppice and fell trees – letting light into the forest, enabling other species to grow and stimulating new growth of the trees themselves. By damming watercourses they create wetland areas – providing habitats for amphibians, invertebrates and fish, which in turn attract birds and otters.
Another great advertisement for beavers. Thanks Trees for Life and Scotland! Please keep dragging this decision out so more and more environmental groups write articles about how good beavers are. Scotland has become the beaver gift that keeps giving. Even if at the end of this they decide to defend their favorite ‘f’ words (Farmers and Fishermen) they will have done soooooooo much to promote beaver benefits in the news cycle that we will never ever stop thanking them.
Sometimes stubborn decision-makers produce the very best kind of opposition. Look at Martinez. If they had made up their mind quickly and intelligently I never would have had to research reasons why they were wrong and this website wouldn’t even exist!
Thank you notes all around.
