Sydney Henderson, Cairngorms Connect Communication and Involvement Manager: What does it mean to you personally to see Beavers back in the Cairngorms?

Julie Ellis, RSPB Scotland Insh Marshes Warden: I don’t see them! it’s a large landscape and there are only a few Beavers out there – but when I am walking or cycling or even swimming in Badenoch and Strathspey, I get a real thrill from knowing that I am sharing this landscape with Beavers.

Ronan Dugan, Wildland Limited Conservation Assistant: For me, it feels like the culmination of decades of work. it’s been particularly humbling to work steadily over the past five or so years and restore some of the woodland and wetland features, ensuring a better home for the Beavers where they were released.

^{Image: Beaver release at Wildland Kinrara estate, December 2023. Credit: Ronan Dugan}

Sydney: Looking back at the releases from last year, what was the lead up like?

Julie: Days before the release, I had been working with the Cairngorms National Park Junior Rangers to create brash piles of branches and twigs to provide shelter and food for the Beavers whilst they found their way around their new home.

Actually seeing a Beaver walking to the water’s edge and then swimming across the water made me unexpectedly emotional. I felt incredibly privileged to be present to see the first Beaver returning to this suitable wetland habitat after an absence of hundreds of years.

When that first Beaver swam across the water, it tentatively sniffed around the cut willow branches and then disappeared into one of the brash piles that the Junior Rangers had prepared. It was wonderful to see that this historic Beaver territory could still provide for the Beavers’ needs – and to be part of ensuring that that remains the case in the future.

Ronan: Of all species worthy of a timely reintroduction to the Cairngorms National Park and indeed the Cairngorms Connect area, I would say Beaver were the perfect new arrival!

Conversations and much hard work have gone on in the background for perhaps a decade about how we could responsibly bring Beavers back to the Cairngorms. It has been heartening to be a part of this project and see the reintroduction become a reality when the first two families were released on the 18th of December 2023 - a wonderful early Christmas present for both us and the environment!

^{Trail camera footage of beavers on RSPB Scotland Insh Marshes in June 2024. Footage: RSPB Scotland}

Sydney: How have Beavers impacted your work?

Ronan: Alongside Jonathan Willet at the Cairngorms National Park Authority, we have been out monitoring them. Kinrara appears to be a paradise with ample willow, birch and even a decent amount of succulent aspen suckers for them to gnaw on.

I certainly see Beavers as a major, and previously missing, piece of the ecological restoration jigsaw we are putting back together, piece by piece.

Julie: With the Beavers in the area for less than a year, I am not yet seeing any physical impacts from them during my usual activities. The Beavers have effectively disappeared into their environment. In the build up to the releases people were curious about – and wary of – the impacts that the re-introduction would have. Since the releases and, with the scarcity of sightings, people I have spoken to have been excited by the possibility of catching a rare glimpse of Beavers and their impacts.

Ronan: It’s made me hopeful - I look forward to living and working alongside Beavers in the National Park and Cairngorms Connect area for many years to come.

^{Feature Image: Beaver release at Wildland Kinrara estate, December 2023. Credit: Ronan Dugan}