Perthshire famer says beaver damage will cost £2m-plus

A Perthshire farmer claims that he has lost more than £2million after beavers caused flooding which destroyed his crops.

The farmer, from Strathmore, warned if the situation continues irreparable damage will be caused to Scottish agriculture.

He shared video footage with the Perthshire Advertiser showing collapsed river embankments and flooded fields.

He grows produce at locations along the Tay and Isla and did not wish to be named.

The embankments had been undermined after beavers had tunnelled into them, he said. Following their collapse fields were inundated by high river water drowning crops, some by as much as a metre deep.

In other footage, wide swathes of gravel can be seen covering farmland which, he said, had been deposited by river water diverted due to beaver activity. Costly work is now underway to repair the damage.

The farmer commented: “These embankments have been there for hundreds of years and until now they have stood the test of time.

“I’d put my losses as a result of the damage of the past few months – if you include the cost of repairs and lost crops – at £2m plus.

“Only eight per cent of the whole of Scotland has prime agricultural land for producing fruit and veg.

“The Strathmore area – from Crieff to Montrose – contains some of the best of it.

“Scotland cannot afford to lose that land. It will become unfarmable and uneconomic if this continues.

“From what I’ve seen I think agriculture and beavers are incompatible.”

Perthshire Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser has said the Scottish Government has “a moral obligation” to compensate farmers for damage caused by beavers.

Farmers by the Tay, Ericht and Isla had suffered “significant loss” due to flooding and crop damage, he pointed out.

Scottish Government biodiversity minister and Green MSP Lorna Slater saw at first-hand the impacts of beavers, as well as river management restrictions, during a visit to Perthshire in March.

NFU Scotland policy director Jonnie Hall, referring to a Tay embankment location, said: “The site visited succumbed a massive blowout of a long-established flood bank due to it being compromised by a beaver lodge – causing physical damage and financial losses that the farm business cannot sustain.”

And NFU Scotland president Martin Kennedy, from Aberfeldy, speaking at conference earlier this year said: “We now have real evidence showing [beaver] impact in areas where there was never the issue of flood bank blowouts prior to their reintroduction.

“Exclusion zones around prime agricultural land must be established.”

Ms Slater has said that beavers can be trapped under licence and removed from areas where they are causing agricultural damage.

Support for farmers and landowners, she said last week, was available from NatureScot including the use of tree guards and deterrent paint to protect individual trees from being felled, the use of pipes to regulate water levels through dams, and the use of in-stream fencing to prevent dam building activity at
culverts.

She added: “Beaver licences will continue to be available to deal with serious risks where there are no feasible alternatives for beaver management.

“There are also opportunities to further support farmers through upcoming changes to agricultural support.

“We are continuing to explore long-term solutions to key issues, such as increasing the resilience of river banks to flooding events.

“In response to Storm Babet [last October], we provided grants of over £1.2m to farmers and land managers in the worst affected areas to help repair damaged flood banks.”