Beaver politics

Alastair Robertson’s piece on beaver reintroduction (Shooting and Fishing, Scotsman Magazine, 25 August) is a classic representation of the feeble case against this keystone species.

We have an ecosystem in steep decline.

Beavers have the potential to bring considerable benefits to our wet woodland and riparian ecosystems.

Salmon are not like some species of farm animal isolated from all external influences.

They are wild creatures that have evolved complex interactions with their environment over millennia.

Beavers and salmon co-existed for all but a tiny part of that 
history and salmon have prospered less and less in a world dominated by human activity.

There is little evidence about salmon and beavers because in the countries where both abound it is, quite simply, a 
non-issue.

David Gibbon

Jordan Lane

Edinburgh