March 20th 2013.
We now have a phone number for our beaver advice and help service. This includes a free volunteer tree wrapping service for any farmer or gardener who has a valued tree close to a waterway with beavers. We can wrap your tree in wire netting for you in such a way that it will protect the tree from beaver activity, but not harm the tree.
For Advice and Help – Phone 07766928525.
February/March 2013
Our Education Team has recently given talks in several of the local primary schools: Glamis, Meigle, Dunkeld, Rattray, Coupar Angus and Goodlyburn. The children and teachers alike have been very enthusiastic to learn more about beavers in general, and the Tay beavers in particular.
One of our members in preparing a beaver talk in Gaelic for P1 of the Breadalbane Gaelic medium school.
If any other school or community group would like a talk, please contact us. 01828 632992 or louise@bamff.co.uk.
February 2013
Tayside Beaver Study Group
The Scottish Wild Beaver Group is delighted to be working with the Tayside Beaver Study Group, the body formed by the Scottish Government, and Chaired by SNH to study the Tayside beaver population. At the moment the group is undertaking a sampling programme to establish the health and genetic status of the population. Traps have been set with the agreement of landowners and any beavers caught will be re-released at the place of capture after blood samples have been taken. Some of the beavers will be taken to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland in Edinburgh for a more complex procedure that cannot be carried out in the field. They will be returned to the wild within the same day.
SWBG Education Programme.
SWBG has undertaken a popular programme of talks in schools.
BBC Autumnwatch covers the Tay Beavers.
The Blairgowrie beavers became TV stars on Wednesday 1st November when Bob Smith’s film was shown and beaver impacts around the catchment were discussed in a positive way and shown to the many viewers of the programme across the UK. We all feel that this is a turning point for the campaign. Thanks to all at Autumnwatch.
We are delighted to be working with the Tayside Beaver Study Group to monitor the Tay beavers and their impacts on the countryside.
16th March 2012
Scottish Wild Beaver Group and members of the campaign “Save the Free Beavers of the Tay” very much welcome the minister’s decision to leave the Tay beavers in the wild and monitor them until 2014. It is great to know, after sixteen months of campaigning, that these wonderful wetland engineers will be left alone by government to carry on living and breeding in the many waterways of the Tay catchment. We are grateful to campaigners from all over Tayside, Scotland, UK and the world for their passionate support throughout.
This is an important step and SWBG members look forward to co-operating with stakeholders in the future management of the beavers. Any problems can be dealt with by a range of mitigation techniques and SWBG can provide the necessary expertise as well as information on the biology and ecology of beavers . We would like to remind everyone that the many benefits of beavers, (biodiversity, flood mitigation, water purity) even measured in purely financial terms, greatly outweigh the cost of mitigation.
The Eurasian beaver, Castor fiber is protected under European law when established in the wild in its natural range .
We estimate that, after this breeding season, there will be over 150 individuals spread over hundreds of square miles.
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