By Bill Heaney
A bid to release beavers in the Highlands was delayed after intensive lobbying by farmers and landowners prompted an intervention by the local MSP and deputy first minister, Kate Forbes, pictured right, The Ferret has revealed.
Emails released under freedom of information law disclose why the wildlife agency, NatureScot, postponed a long-awaited plan to move beavers into Loch Beinn A’ Mheadhoin in Glen Affric.
Forbes, the National Farmers Union in Scotland (NFUS) and local landowners privately piled pressure on the agency to derail a beaver licence application by the government’s Forestry and Land Scotland.
In 2021 Green MSP Lorna Slater, then biodiversity minister, announced a change of policy aimed at allowing beavers to be moved to other parts of Scotland instead of being shot. Authorised releases have since taken place at Loch Lomond and in the Cairngorms.
