Please refer to the following information sources for background on key beaver-related issues including:

• Beaver ecology
• Scottish experiences of beaver reintroductions
• Positive and negative impacts on ecosystems, land and river use by people and economy
• Government policy on beavers in Scotland
• Implementing mitigation

The National Beaver Strategy for Scotland was developed with a wide range of national stakeholders through the late winter and spring months of this year. It is now due for publication and we expect it to be published online during July.

• Beavers in Scotland: A report from Scottish Natural Heritage to the Scottish Government in 2015. It provided advice to Government summarising the current knowledge of beavers in Scotland, drawing on the experience from both Tayside and Knapdale. This report remains the key touchstone for an overview of beaver interactions with the natural and human environments.
• NatureScot’s Management Framework for Beavers
• Beavers in Knapdale, Final report from the Scottish Beavers Reinforcement Project, December 2020
• NatureScot Commissioned Report 805: Tayside beaver socio-economic impact study, 2015
• Centre of Expertise for Waters, January 2022: Establishing the potential influence of beaver activity on the functioning of rivers and streams and water resource management in Scotland
• Natural England, August 2021: A review of the evidence on the interactions of beavers with the natural and human environment in relation to England
• Research article published June 2022, includes the finding that historic periods of higher numbers and size of Atlantic salmon spawners in the Spey, coincided with the presence of beaver populations in the landscape, supporting contemporary evidence that Atlantic salmon and European beaver are able to co-exist in larger numbers than present: Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years
• Research into the influence of Eurasian beavers on freshwater habitats: Are beavers a solution to the freshwater biodiversity crisis?
• Government announcement, November 2021: Protecting Scotland’s beaver population
• Parliamentary question on beaver translocation, November 2021
• Trees for Life report on a consultation about the Strathglass beaver population in 2017
• Ecology and movement of juvenile salmonids in beaver-influenced and beaver-free tributaries in the Trøndelag province of Norway
• The response of a brown trout (Salmo trutta) population to reintroduced Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) habitat modification
• North American Beavers used by public agency to improve fish habitat in the U.S.A.:
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce & https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/working-natures-engineers-build-coho-salmon-habitat
• A review of the influence of beaver Castor fiber on amphibian assemblages in the floodplains of European temperate streams and rivers
• Ecosystem services provided by beavers Castor spp.
• Beaver dams attenuate flow: A multi-site study
• The impacts of beavers Castor spp. on biodiversity and the ecological basis for their reintroduction to Scotland, UK
• Final Report of the Beaver Salmonid Working Group 2015 – a review of beaver impacts on salmonid fish in Scotland