We have imported 4 beavers from Norway and, after a period of quarantine, we hope to reintroduce them into Scotland. We killed the remaining native ones a few hundred years ago. Everyone is enthusing about this except for a few farmers who are moaning about matters like tree destruction.
Has no one thought about Tierra del Fuego, that island at the bottom of South America? The Argentines set 50 Canadian beavers loose down there about 60 years ago and today there are around 250,000. The chew down the trees to create their dams and this in turn creates flooding so more trees die. They pollute the water and they block culverts causing road flooding. They are such a pest that there was a bounty on their heads until last year. Since that stopped, the population has grown by 20%, I have read.
I went there in Dec 2005 and visited the National Park. This is what they do. Notice the dead trees.
You may say, they are not such a pest in Canada and it is said that they actually recycle vegetation and slow down the water run-off after rain. But Canada is a far, far bigger than Scotland and they have bears to keep the beavers down.
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