{"id":91830,"date":"2025-08-23T18:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T18:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91830\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T18:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T18:53:09","slug":"six-beaver-families-to-be-released-near-river-beauly-in-the-highlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91830\/","title":{"rendered":"Six beaver families to be released near River Beauly in the Highlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six beaver families are to be released at two sites near the River Beauly in the Highlands after a public consultation<\/a> split opinion.<\/p>\n

NatureScot has approved licenses for four families at Glen Affric nature reserve, and two on land managed by Abriachan Forest Trust.<\/p>\n

The government body said the move followed discussions with land and fishing groups, with arguments being made on whether beavers should be returned.<\/p>\n

Supporters say beavers can improve water quality and natural habitats and also help to alleviate flooding, but critics say they can damage land and crops. <\/p>\n

A beaver mitigation and monitoring group is being set up to manage potential issues.<\/p>\n

NatureScot said it would work with Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) on the monitoring for at least 10 years after the beavers’ release.<\/p>\n

Chris Donald, NatureScot’s head of operations for Central Highland, said: “Beavers can bring many benefits for nature and people \u2013 including creating biodiverse habitats, moderating water flows and improving water quality \u2013 all of which can play a part in creating climate-resilient landscapes.<\/p>\n

“After careful consideration, we believe that it is possible to realise these many benefits while ensuring that the community is supported in living with beavers.”<\/p>\n

A small number of beavers have been living on the River Beauly system for the last decade as a result of unauthorised escapes or releases.<\/p>\n

Beavers died out in Scotland about 400 years ago but were reintroduced in 2009.<\/p>\n

Populations are already established in the Cairngorms, Tayside, on the Forth, in Knapdale and Loch Lomond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six beaver families are to be released at two sites near the River Beauly in the Highlands after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-91830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}