Beaver Management Report for 2022

Updated: May 2023

Key findings

• Scotland’s Beaver Strategy which was published in September 2022 now guides the direction of beaver restoration and management in Scotland. The findings of this report support that the Beaver Management Framework is supporting the delivery of Scotland’s Beaver Strategy – helping to maximise the ecosystem and wider benefits of an expanding beaver population whilst minimising the negative impacts.

• The beaver population is currently in a phase of rapid expansion. This trend is expected to continue in Tayside, and as beavers colonise new catchments. The last population estimate of 251 territories two years ago could now represent over 1500 animals.

• A body of work has taken place to support and explore the effects of beaver translocations to new catchments. The third wild beaver release in Scotland (and the first since the policy change to support wider beaver translocations) took place at the RSPB Scotland reserve on Loch Lomond in January 2023.

• Work is progressing to support the consideration of further translocations to new catchments with applications for locations in the Beauly and Spey catchments anticipated this summer.

• A total of 108 beavers were removed from conflict sites in 2022 (45 by trapping and 63 through lethal control). Of those removed, the proportion that were trapped and translocated was 42% in 2022 a significant increase from 28% in 2021. A total of 15 were released to the wild in Scotland. Naturescot will continue to work with licence holders to arrange trapping where this is needed throughout the licensable period, to see a further shift in the proportion removed being trapped and translocated.

• Over the whole of Tay and Forth catchments 10% of territories were affected by removals and 7% of the population taken (assuming there has been a 30% annual increase). The numbers of beavers in Tayside appears not to be negatively affected by the levels of removals in recent years, but careful consideration will continue to be given to the impact of future removals.

• Several changes to beaver licensing are proposed including: the introduction of an application form for all beaver licences, a change to the licence returns period and the submission of carcasses to NatureScot for post mortem becoming a condition of lethal control licences.

Introduction

We have provided a summary of beaver management every year since they became EPS in 2019. This report is the fourth such report and we aim to provide an update on beaver restoration and management. The justification for producing a beaver specific report continues to be that they are relatively recently reintroduced and there continues to be high public interest in all aspects of their ecology and management.

Last September saw the publication of Scotland’s Beaver Strategy, the culmination of many months of discussions between more than 50 stakeholder organisations with an interest in beaver restoration and management. The Strategy sets out a vision for 2045

“Throughout Scotland, communities are supported in working together to maximise the ecosystem and wider benefits of beavers while minimising negative impacts. The beaver population is actively expanded into appropriate areas; adaptive management and mitigation is used to protect assets and interests.”

The Strategy has three main themes, under which there are a series of goals, objectives and actions. We have followed these themes in structuring this report.

1. Conservation Translocation
2. Management and Mitigation
3. Research and Innovation

A governance group of key stakeholders has been established to take the Strategy forward. The Scottish Beaver Advisory Group met for the first time in January 2023 and is currently considering the sub-groups required to support implementation and how progress on the strategy can be monitored and reported.

A key change underpinning the Strategy was the announcement by Scottish Ministers in November 2021 to allow conservation translocations to other parts of Scotland from July 2022. Hence 2022 has been a busy year with getting the processes, the support and guidance in place to allow translocation proposals to be properly considered and to happen. The first translocation licence since this policy change, was issued to RSPB Scotland for their reserve on Loch Lomond in December 2022.

The Beaver Management Framework remains in place and beaver licensing and mitigation remain to be the principal means of addressing negative impacts and enabling greater tolerance of beaver presence.

A sub-group of SBAG is to be established to prioritise research and innovation needs and to drive this area of work going forward. Here NatureScot report on some of the innovative work we have been leading over the last year.

The last survey of the beaver population in Tayside and Forth was carried out over the winter of 2020/21. At that time there was estimated to be 251 active beaver territories equivalent to roughly 954 animals (range 602-1381). This was a 30% annual increase since the previous survey in 2017/18 and that rate of increase was expected to continue. Since then we have had a further two years of breeding, hence it would be expected that there is now of the order of 424 beaver territories or over 1500 individuals. If this trajectory continues, and recognising there will be limits to capacity in Tayside at some point but that populations will also be expanding in other catchments, there could be over 10,000 beavers in Scotland by 2030.

Conservation Translocation

Prior to 2022 there had been two authorised beaver translocations in Scotland; the Scottish Beaver Trial in Knapdale from 2009 and following the decision to allow the existing Tayside and Knapdale populations to remain in 2016, a licenced reinforcement of the  Forth beaver population to Argaty in November 2021.

Hence extensive review of the evidence of beaver effects and the assessment of impacts on other interests had already taken place. With key documents being the Beavers in Scotland Report (2015) and the 2017 SEA/ and Habitats Regulations Assessment.

In preparing for a wider programme of beaver translocation, NatureScot have sought to provide more guidance on the process for applicants and stakeholders and to provide practical support for licenced projects.

In January 2022 we published interim guidance on ‘NatureScot support for and assessment of beaver translocation projects’. Naturescot has entered a partnership agreement with the Beaver Trust and Five Sisters Zoo to support the costs of animals being trapped, transported and released in Scotland including supporting their captive care costs and health screening.

Following requests for more guidance particularly on the consultation requirements by both applicants and consultees, the interim guidance was supplemented in March 2022 by the following guidance 'Beavers in Scotland - Conservation translocation guidance for applicants, consultees and interested parties'.

Building on the Strategic Environmental Assessment carried out in 2017, NatureScot produce an ER Addendum in October 2022. This ER provides an update the information in the 2017 report, building on our knowledge and changes in the policy context over the five year period. This Addendum also includes a spatial analysis of all the river catchments in mainland Scotland in terms of the likely risks and benefits of beaver translocation, to help inform the consideration of the suitability of new catchments for beaver wild releases.

We also produced an Environmental Report that was specific to the River Leven (Loch Lomond) and River Forth catchments, both of which had been identified as having significant potential benefit from beaver presence and a relatively low risk of conflict. These Environmental Reports were open for public consultation for six weeks and a post adoption report was added in December 2022.  The purpose of the Environmental Report is to ensure that all the appropriate information has been taken into account in making a licensing decision and to allow those with an interest to make comments on the accuracy of the assessment or highlight any issues that have been overlooked. However, it is not the role of the ER consultation to assess whether there is broad public support for a translocation proposal. The applicants are expected to carry out a proportionate level of engagement and to reflect this in an engagement report to be submitted with the licence application. Habitats Regulations Assessments were also carried out for Natura sites in both catchments.

Following an application by RSPB Scotland, NatureScot licensing approved the release licence later in December 2022. The release of one family of beavers (seven animals) took place at the end of January 2023.

In preparing the Loch Lomond wild release licence NatureScot produced a series of protocols that can be applied to future beaver translocations. These include:

• Disease risk assessment and a disease screening protocol
• Trap, care and release  -best practice
• Post release monitoring of beavers

The need for monitoring of other affected interest has been highlighted by the SEA/HRA process. Monitoring can be required as a condition of a licence at the release site and there are likely to be other monitoring requirements for other interests beyond the release locations. The need to monitor beaver impacts will vary between locations and the designated interests in particular.

Two other potential translocations are being been publically discussed and engagement is underway by the prospective applicants (in this case Trees for Life and the Cairngorms National Park Authority) to ensure that the risks and benefits of these proposals are properly understood before a licence application is submitted to NatureScot. In preparation, NatureScot are supporting these proposals by preparing and will be consulting on Environmental Reports for the associated catchments this summer; The River Beauly and Beauly Coastal catchment (as one) and the River Spey as the second.

A number of other expressions of interest in beaver translocation have been made to NatureScot and we will work with those that are interested to explore the potential for beaver translocation.  Opportunities remain for beaver translocations with the existing Knapdale, Tay, Forth and now Loch Lomond catchments.

The publication of Scotland’s Beaver Strategy in November 2021 has established a series of goals and actions relating to translocations many of which are already in progress and the delivery of which will be guided by SBAG.

Management and Mitigation

NatureScot continues to provide free, expert advice, under the Beaver Mitigation Scheme on how to live alongside beavers and, where necessary, how to manage beaver activity.  Beaver mitigation seeks to minimise negative impacts thus promoting co-existence.

The NatureScot beaver team staff resource has increased to roughly 4.5 FTE staff and we have three call-off contracts with specialist advisors.  Collectively this team dealt with 37 beaver mitigation cases in 2022, 23 of which were new, and 14 had had previous involvement.  All cases but one, were from the Tay catchment, with one case in Forth catchment. 

The primary beaver behaviour that lead to a requirement for mitigation was dam building (59% of all cases). Dam removal or modification (such as dam notching or installation of a flow device) were therefore the most common type of mitigation used (in 46% of all cases).  Beavers build dams in small watercourses to raise the water level in order to create a safe environment in which they can live.  Once the dam is established, the beaver may then create a place of shelter (i.e. a burrow or lodge) upstream of the dam.  Early intervention (i.e. removal within 2 weeks of the dam being built) is likely to be the most successful approach, since beavers are much more likely to abandon rebuilding a ‘new’ dam than they are an established one.  This intervention does not require a licence and hence such removals are not reflected in licence returns. 

The second most common beaver behaviour that caused conflict, was bark stripping/tree felling (27% of all cases), with crop foraging recorded in only 3% of all mitigation cases. Whilst individual trees of value can successfully be protected from beaver using weldmesh or deterrent paint, beaver foraging on trees is a ‘normal’ behaviour and acceptance of foraging impacts is an important part of learning to have beavers back in the landscape. Hence in many cases our advice is for a limited level of tree protection.

These behaviours were recorded as negatively impacting on infrastructure (30%), agriculture (27%), woodland/amenity (27%) with bank erosion/collapse; septic tank compromise; and loss of grazing collectively make up the remaining 16% of cases.

In approximately a third of cases, expert advice was provided to empower the land manager to be able to manage beaver impacts for themselves.  Further work will be progressed to ensure that as the beaver range expands, land managers have access to guidance and training on a suite of tried and tested mitigation measures to enable them to manage impacts for themselves.

We have updated the guidance on our website to provide greater clarity on the focus of the Beaver Mitigation Scheme and where NatureScot will support the costs of specific mitigations.

The NatureScot operational budget for beaver mitigation was fully committed in the financial year 2022/23 with spend of £165K. In addition, we spent £30K on work in support of beaver translocations.

Beaver licensing

Table 1 Number of licences current in calendar year 2022

Activity licenced	Purpose for which licence was granted - Preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, property or fisheries - Prime agricultural land (PAL)	Purpose for which licence was granted - Preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, property or fisheries - Non-PAL	Purpose for which licence was granted - Public Safety
Lethal control and dam removal	34	1	0
Dam removal only	11	5	1
Trapping locations (noting covered by 1 licence)	13	1	0

 

Of a total of 52 licences were valid in 2022, 9 related to the Tay, 24 to the Isla sub-catchment, 12 to the Earn, and two to other water bodies.  The number of current licences is similar to previous years with many remaining in place at the same location, with some expiring and some new.  All 10 new licences issued in 2022 only permitted dam removal. Five of these were issued to prevent serious damage to Prime Agricultural Land (PAL), 4 to prevent serious damage to crops, growing timber or fisheries (i.e. non-PAL land and including one for forestry and one for fisheries) and one for the purpose of health and safety. There was one exceptional licence issued in the kit dependency period (1^st April to 16^th April) which permitted the use of lethal control, however, the single beaver was trapped and removed and the exceptional licence was not used.

The geographical distribution of licences remains similar to previous years and the purpose of the licences remain focused on agricultural impacts.

Table 2 Annual return information - actions carried out under licence

Returns received	50 of 52
Number of licences used (lethal control or dam removal).	28
Lethal control – number of animals killed	63
Number of animals trapped and removed	45
Total number of animals removed	108
Other actions taken	1 burrow, 1 lodge destroyed
Number of animals translocated to licenced projects (within Scotland)	42 (15)
Number of dams removed or modified	108

 

Two licence holders did not submit returns despite several reminders and new licences will not be issued to these holders pending the submission of completed returns.

Of the 52 licences in place, action was taken under 28 licences (53 %). Trapping was carried out at an additional four sites under a separate specialist licence, i.e. action was taken on a total of 32 sites.

A total of 63 animals were killed under 13 licences and 108 dam were removed under 23 licences. Forty five animals were trapped from conflict sites by small team of experienced trappers under a separate licence. Twenty seven of the animals trapped were released to licenced projects in England and 15 to licenced projects in Scotland, 3 died in captive care and one animal was euthanased that tested positive for Cryptosporidium spp. for which there is no veterinary treatment. The cause of death of the animals in captive care was as follows: metabolic stress, systemic Staphylococcus infection, details for the third animals have still to be confirmed. All animals were trapped from locations where a licence was in place, some that only permitted dam removal only, but trapping was approved by NatureScot (10 beavers). Forty three of the 45 beavers trapped were removed from PAL land and two from non-PAL land (that has been assessed by RPID as equivalent to PAL land).

Hence a total of 108 beavers were removed from conflict sites (trapping and lethal control) which is slightly less than the 120 in 2021, and the 147 in 2020 and similar to the 2019 figure of 102. Of those removed, the proportion that were trapped and translocated was 42% in 2022 a significant increase from 28% in 2021, 21% in 2020 and 15% in 2019. The increase in trapping has come about by NatureScot staff liaising with licence holders and seeking to facilitate trapping via the Beaver Trust wherever this is feasible, rather than resorting to lethal control. Most licence holders have shown a willingness to engage with trapping, which is done at no costs to the land manager. NatureScot will continue to work with licence holders to arrange trapping where this is needed throughout the licensable period to see a further shift in the proportion removed being trapped and translocated.

A number of requests were received for beaver removal outwith PAL land relating to impacts on agriculture, sport shooting and amenity that were declined. For NatureScot to issue licences for removal all three licensing tests need to be met. As we start to see beavers in a wider landscape with a wider mixture of land uses and in new catchments where the establishing population is small, the impact beavers are having and the impact of issuing licences will need to be carefully considered.

Impact of beaver removals in 2022

As noted, the last survey of the beaver population in Tayside and Forth was carried out over the winter of 2020/21. Hence the information on the number and location of beaver territories is now 18 months to 2 years old. Nevertheless we have made an assessment of the cumulative impact of beaver removals in 2022 at a range of spatial scales.

Local - at the level of individual beaver territories

Animals were taken (trapping and lethal control) from between 22 and 31 territories, as mapped during the 2020-2021 survey (i.e. taken from within 0.5km of one or more mapped territories). Of the 106 animals where location is known in sufficient detail, 25 were taken further than 0.5km from a mapped beaver territory. Twenty-three of the 25 were taken from one of seven locations where others beavers were also taken, suggesting that at least some of those were from newly established territories. These seven potential new territories were spread across Tayside (Earn = 2, Isla 3, Tay = 2).  In addition, one controller thought one area allocated to an existing territory, was probably three groups. Given the high numbers taken from a site which has a history of control, this seems a reasonable assumption. Therefore, between 31 and 40 territories were affected by removals.

Medium - At the level of river sections

The Tay and its main sub-catchments (the Earn and Isla) were divided into 21 river sections. The main findings from this were that:

• Between 0 and 26 beavers were taken per river section, with half (11) of the river sections having none taken (cf 10 sections with none taken in 2021). Of those where beavers were taken, a mean of 9.8 animals were taken (cf 10.1 in 2021).
• Ten of the 11 sections where beavers were taken also had beavers removed in 2021, while two of the sections where beavers were removed from in 2021 had none taken this year.
• There was a significant correlation between the number of beavers taken in each section this year and the number taken in 2021: Spearman’s correlation, r=0.777, p<0.001, Fig 1a). This was also true comparing 2022 with the combined take over 2019-2021: r=0.796, p<0.001, Fig 1b).
• together, these results indicate that most conflict sites in previous years continue to experience conflict, necessitating continuing removal of beavers.

Large - sub-catchment scale

• The proportion of territories affected in each sub-catchment was between 4% and 16%, assuming a 30% annual increase in territories.
• The proportion of the population taken in each sub-catchment was between 3% and 11%, again assuming a 30% annual increase in population with each.
• As in previous years, the Earn and the Isla sub-catchments had the largest number of removals.

Over the whole of Tay and Forth catchments 10% of territories were affected by removals and 7% of the population taken, if an increase is assumed as above. These are lower figures compared to previous years (14% of the population in 2019, 16% in 2020, 10% in 2021). This is not surprising since the total number of animals removed was lower than the previous year.

Table 3. Sub-catchment totals for beaver territories and numbers taken. See above for further detail on the numbers if territories affected. Population (‘pop’) is the number of territories × 3.8. Numbers are estimated for 2022-2023 based on a 30% annual change (i.e. a continuation of the increase in the number of territories recorded between 2017/18 and 2020/21). Population values from the last survey are provided but in most cases will underestimate numbers. Not all territories fell within the sections mapped, e.g. peripheral territories in Dundee and Fife, but no removals were conducted in those areas.

Sub-catchment	No. territories 2020-21	Est territories in 22-23 (+30%/yr)	Shot 2022	Trapped 2022	Total 2022	% pop in 20-21	% pop in 22-23 (+30%/yr)
Earn	53	90	24	15	39	19%	11%
Forth	25	42	0	0	0	0%	0%
Isla	95	161	32	24	56	16%	9%
Tay	75	127	7	6	13	5%	3%
All	251	424	63	45	108	11%	7%

The numbers of beavers in Tayside appears not to be negatively affected by the levels of removals experienced in recent years, as evidenced by the greater number of animals taken from posited new territories this year. However, since no survey has been conducted since 2020-2021, we cannot determine population changes such as abandonment or loss of territories or indeed the establishment of new territories where no conflicts have arisen. Anecdotally, beavers continue to expand into new areas not previously occupied in all the sub-catchments. Continued monitoring of the beavers in Tayside will be needed to monitor the impact of licenced removals. NatureScot are developing thinking on an approach to beaver monitoring as their range expands. However, sampling of rivers with higher levels of removal will allow regular monitoring of the impact of licencing.

Controller returns – best practice – summary information

Assuming 31 territories were affected (see above), a mean of 3.35 animals were taken per affected territory (median 3, range 1-10). The pattern is similar to previous years and the frequency of mapped territories where only one animal was taken was lower than last year.  The Code of Practice issued with licences, recommends that all members of a group are taken for welfare reasons and to prevent ongoing impacts. These results suggest the Code of Practice has been successful in effecting this approach. Most territories had fewer than six animals taken but two territories potentially had 10 removed. One of these was at a location in the Isla sub-catchment and the sex and age composition of the trapped animals indicate this was one large family group. The other was in the Earn sub-catchment, but possibly consisted of several territories covering the main river channel and surrounding drainage ditches.

Overall, the quality of the returns data was an improvement on previous years. In particular, estimates of group sizes and the level of detail on locations were better. Nevertheless, a few issues with the information provided in returns remain and will be followed-up with the relevant licence holders and controllers. One licence has been revoked following the information in the return indicating there had been a breach of licence conditions.

Post mortems in 2022

Two beavers were received for post mortem in 2022. One was a male, probably two years old, from the Beauly area and had likely died from trauma after plunging down a waterfall. The other was a juvenile female from Tayside (Forth catchment) and was a road casualty. Neither tested positive for zoonotic diseases. No carcasses were handed in from licenced control.

Changes in beaver licensing for 2023

NatureScot are moving to an application form for all new beaver licences in line with other species, to ensure we have up to date information on impacts. This should be available shortly to allow those with licences that are about to expire to enable them to apply for new licences in time for 17th August, when they could next be used.

To more accurately reflect the period over which beaver management takes place we plan to change returns period to 17^th August to 31^st March rather than ‘calendar years’. This will be effective for all new licences.  Updated controller returns forms are now available

Updates have been made to the Codes of Practice for Lethal Control and Dam removal.  The Lethal Control Code of Practice sets out that licence holders must adhere to the licensable purpose and best practice in beaver control. The Code of Practice encourages licence holders to engage with trapping wherever this is possible and NatureScot are seeking to establish an ongoing dialogue to facilitate this. 

A key change is around the provision of carcasses for post mortem.  The number of carcasses submitted to NatureScot for post mortem has consistently been very low. Post mortems are carried out independently and NatureScot use the information to monitor beaver health and welfare. The submission of carcasses will now be a condition of a lethal control licence and whilst we recognise there may be health and safety issues associated with retrieving carcasses in some cases, we expect this to be the exception. The Code of Practice for dam removal has been updated to provide more advice on how this should be carried out to reduce the risk of sediment release.

Research and innovation

A sub-group of SBAG is to be established and will prioritise research and innovation needs and drive forward this programme of work. NatureScot has lead and collaborated on a number of projects in the last year including the following.

NatureScot participated in the Scottish Government’s CivTech 7 Challenge scheme to find better methods to detect beaver burrows and assess the risk around these to other land-uses. The challenge was taken up by JBA Consulting and Storm Geomatics, who we worked with over 2022 to develop the approach. Enough progress was made towards developing the tool (called ‘RiverEye’) that we have taken this project to the next phase and we will continue to work with the RiverEye team through 2023.

NatureScot continue to trial the use of a remote water level monitoring system to give land managers early warning on beavers establishing new dams at locations where these can’t be tolerated. The system sends an email to the land manager when the water level rises above a predefined level, then another email when the water levels falls again. Land managers can then visit the location if this second ‘fall’ email does not arrive as expected, indicating that a dam is responsible for the raised water level and not rainfall. NatureScot staff have access to a graphical interface which enables better interpretation of the data from the monitors, should that be needed (see Fig 2).

NatureScot have been working with researchers at the University of the Highlands and Islands on a package of projects including:  the potential use of eDNA in beaver surveys and to measure change in aquatic communities associated with beaver presence; the role of beavers in relation to physical processes and the development of modelling tools that could be used to predict effects on other sites, and social research into the perceptions of beavers associated with proposals for beaver translocation.

We have also trialled the use of LiDAR and multi-spectral imagery on a number of sites to assess how habitat changes made by beavers can be accurately assessed. 

We have worked with the Newcastle University to develop a pilot web-based tool that helps to predict how beaver populations can change over space and time under different scenarios. There has been wide interest in this tool, so we are now working with colleagues in Natural England, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, and academic partners at the Universities of Exeter and Newcastle, to develop it further so that it can be applied across Britain. We are looking at how the tool can eventually be made more widely applicable and available to help inform and plan conservation translocations.

Conclusions

Scotland’s Beaver Strategy now provides the vision for beaver restoration and management in Scotland and the steps required to realise this vision over the next 10 years are set out in the implementation plan. There are 89 actions in total and hence there will be a need to prioritise and take this forward amongst the range of Strategy partners. The strategy recognises we are still in a period of transition with beavers re-establishing in new parts of the country and in terms of human beaver relations and the steps needed to help support coexistence.

Further beaver translocations are anticipated in the next year where there are considered to be net benefits in terms of beavers providing ecosystem services and associated with low levels of conflict. Further work is ongoing to better qualify the benefits of some of these ecosystem services such as the monetary savings from flood mitigation and water quality improvements. This translocation work is progressing at pace reflecting the nature and climate crises and the opportunity to employ nature-based solutions. However, there is a need to ensure that risks are properly considered and that those likely to be affected have the opportunity to raise concerns.

Beaver licensing has operated at a similar level in 2022 to previous years. Annual variation is likely relating to where and when previous removals have taken place and rates of recolonization. The pattern suggests that conflicts are arising in similar locations over the years and that beaver removal provides a temporary solution to conflicts. The proportion of removals being carried out by trapping as opposed to lethal control has increased and efforts will continue to facilitate trapping where beaver removal is necessary.

Whilst the survey information on the location of territories is now a couple of years old, the analysis indicates that this level of removal from the limited geography where control is taking place is not having an adverse effect on the beaver population. Notably there are recent reports of beavers being present in the South Esk indicating that the population is still expanding in this area. However, continued consideration will need to be given to the impact of issuing removal licences from the wider landscape and new catchments. In considering the need for licenced interventions, the least damaging interventions should be considered first.

NatureScot continue to provide the Beaver Mitigation Scheme to support land managers as beavers are re-establishing. In many cases we are able to provide advice, allowing land managers to adjust to beaver presence with some mitigations. As beavers move into new catchments we expect this will be replicated and NatureScot will look to ensure there is guidance and training available on beaver mitigation that helps promote coexistence.

The findings of the report support that the Beaver Management Framework is supporting the delivery of Scotland’s Beaver Strategy – helping to maximise the ecosystem and wider benefits of an expanding beaver population whilst minimising the negative impacts.