The Indepent Environment Section carried an interesting story yesterday (10/07/08) covering our friends and partners at Trees For Life who are working to reintroduce the beaver to Knapdale, Mid Argyll in Scotland.
The article, by Esther Walker, quotes Alan Watson Featherstone, Chief Executive of Trees for Life as saying:
“The majority of people in the Mid Argyll area – about 73 per cent – are in favour of reintroducing the beaver, but the previous Scottish Executive wasn’t so sure,” he says. “It rejected the previous application for a licence in 2005 on the grounds of fears that the beavers might damage certain kinds of tree and that if their population got out of control, as beavers are a protected species, they couldn’t be culled. But the new Executive has been much more sympathetic to the reintroduction and I’m very pleased it’s going ahead now.” – Alan Watson Featherstone
Wilderness Foundation UK has for some time being working on the issue of species reintroduction, particularly that of the beaver, which has proven to be an issue that raises concerns, partly from landowners who are understandably wary of the concept.
It is encouraging to see plans being developed to a realistic point of implementation, with Trees for Life setting a target date of 2009 for between 15 and 20 beavers to be released onto their land, after the beavers have been through a strict quarantine regime (the animals will be captured from an existing population in Norway).
To read the full article online click here
