Beavers fell one in ten trees at trial site ‘changing structure of woods’

BEAVERS released into the wild in Scotland have gnawed down one in ten trees in their trial area, a new study has revealed.

Scottish Natural Heritage has been monitoring the impact of the large rodents in Knapdale Forest, Argyll, and has discovered they have changed the structure of the woodland.

A report, published yesterday, showed that 17 months after their release about 10 per cent of trees were showing signs of beaver activity – most being felled.

The beavers feed on bark, twigs, shoots and leaves and also use the material for building lodges and dams. The researchers discovered they have a particular taste for willow and rowan and tend to avoid alder.

The research, carried out by the James Hutton Institute on behalf of SNH, found the average size of trees felled was 5cm in diameter, but the largest were 30cm. Being felled does not mean the death of the tree – 44 per cent have already sprouted new growth.

The report, The Scottish Beaver Trial: Woodland monitoring 2010, will help the Scottish Government decide whether the mammal should be permanently brought back to Scotland.

Beavers, which had been extinct in Scotland for 400 years, were reintroduced in May 2009 as part of a five-year trial run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, hosted by Forestry Commission Scotland.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust revealed yesterday that two more beaver kits had been born at the trial site, but one had died after it was attacked by a predator, possibly a fox.

Currently there are 12 beavers in the wild at Knapdale – four fewer than the 16 originally released at the site. Four have been born over the past two years, but eight have either died or have gone missing and are presumed dead.

A critic of the project, Robin Malcolm, who owns a 2,000- hectare farm next to the trial site, said nearby trees had been “savaged”. He said: “They eat the bits that are juicy and palatable and leave the rest to rot. It’s not a pretty sight.”

He added that he thought it was “cruel” on the beavers to bring them to Scotland where so many had ended up dying.

“It would have been much kinder to let them live their gentle lives in Norway.”

Jane Allan, who manages cottages and runs a basket-making business nearby, believes there are now so few beavers at the site that it would be impossible to monitor what impact large numbers would have.

“My initial concern was that they would do extremely well and would breed successfully and we would end up with no trees at all,” she said. “But the way it’s going there are so few it’s not going to reveal what impact they would actually have.

“Also, because they have been put on lochs instead of streams it won’t show their impacts on fisheries. The whole project is flawed.”

However, Roisin Campbell-Palmer, Scottish Beaver Trial field operations manager, said the death of the young kit was an “inevitable part of any animal reintroduction”.

“We’re extremely pleased to have a successful wild birth again, and all indications for future breeding are extremely positive,” she said.

Martin Gaywood, who leads the independent scientific monitoring of the trial for SNH said: “This trial will give the Scottish Government the information it needs to decide whether beavers should be reintroduced on a wide-scale in Scotland.”