240614Paper1PerfCtteeBringingBeaversBackProject

Cairngorms Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee paper 1 14 June 2024 Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 4

For dis­cus­sion

Title: Bring­ing beavers back pro­ject Pre­pared by: Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Conservation

Pur­pose This paper presents the latest deliv­ery updates on the Bring­ing back beavers project.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee is asked to review deliv­ery updates and con­sider: a) Pro­gress towards the project’s object­ives. b) Any stra­tegic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on deliv­ery of the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Authority’s Cor­por­ate Plan and Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. c) Any mater­i­al impacts on the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk management.

Per­form­ance Dash­board Pro­ject vis­ion: A healthy pop­u­la­tion of beavers in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, bring­ing max­im­um bene­fits for wild­life and people. This includes sup­port­ing land man­agers and com­munit­ies to live along­side beavers.

Per­form­ance Meas­ure:	Rat­ing	Com­ment­ary
Pro­gress towards the project’s objectives
Raise aware­ness and increase under­stand­ing of beaver eco­logy, beha­viour, pos­it­ive and neg­at­ive impacts and inter­ac­tion with land­scapes and wild­life in the Nation­al Park.	Green	The Park Author­ity sup­por­ted the first releases with radio inter­views, web­site inform­a­tion, videos and blogs. Beaver Pro­ject man­ager has giv­en 14 talks, atten­ded by around 300 people in total, includ­ing an event at Boat of Garten Hall atten­ded by over 130 people. Park Author­ity staff reg­u­larly patrol where beavers are, pro­mot­ing respons­ible access and provid­ing information.

Cairngorms Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee paper 1 14 June 2024 Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 2 of 4

| Release beaver fam­il­ies into the Upper Spey catch­ment to cre­ate a founder pop­u­la­tion to estab­lish a thriv­ing, sus­tain­able pop­u­la­tion. | Green | On 12 Decem­ber NatureScot gran­ted the Park Author­ity a five-year trans­lo­ca­tion licence to release up to 50 beavers into the upper Spey catch­ment over the five-year peri­od. In the first release year (Dec 2023- April 2024) a total of 18 beavers were released across three sites. | | Sup­port­ing the imple­ment­a­tion of a mit­ig­a­tion scheme in the Nation­al Park, ensur­ing issues are dealt with in a timely and effi­cient man­ner in such a way that land man­agers and com­munit­ies are sup­por­ted to live along­side beaver. | Green | The Park Authority’s mon­it­or­ing and mit­ig­a­tion plan sets out how the Park Author­ity will provide addi­tion­al sup­port for land man­agers in the Nation­al Park. An Upper Spey Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion group has been set up to share inform­a­tion, sup­port land man­agers liv­ing along­side beavers and share exper­i­ences from the Park and else­where. No neg­at­ive impacts requir­ing mit­ig­a­tion have been repor­ted to date. Pre-empt­ive tree pro­tec­tion is in place at sev­er­al sites iden­ti­fied as hav­ing a high like­li­hood of impacts on biod­iversity, busi­ness and prop­erty. Flood bank sur­veys will be com­pleted July 2024 and repeated annu­ally. | | Max­im­ise oppor­tun­it­ies for envir­on­ment­al and socio-eco­nom­ic bene­fits from beavers. | Green | The Park Author­ity has worked with Rothiemurchus estate to cre­ate a 7km beaver trail at Lochan Mor. The trail provides an easy, cir­cu­lar walk­ing route with inter­pret­a­tion and an oppor­tun­ity to see beavers respons­ibly. The Park Author­ity has run two train­ing ses­sions, atten­ded by 24 out­door access pro­viders and wild­life guides in the Nation­al Park. A wild­life guid­ing com­pany is now run­ning a pro­gramme of beaver tours. | | Imple­ment a research and mon­it­or­ing plan to provide an evid­ence base for the pos­it­ive and neg­at­ive impacts of beaver. | Green | Fol­low­ing each release, feed­ing sta­tions, cam­er­as and site patrols are used to intens­ively mon­it­or beaver activ­ity for the first 6 – 8 weeks. Cam­er­as remain in situ and weekly site vis­its closely mon­it­or lodges, in/​out flows, infra­struc­ture sites and sites of high biod­iversity value. Reg­u­lar sur­veys, includ­ing canoe sur­veys, record feed­ing signs, lodge build­ing and ter­rit­ory mark­ing activity. |

Cairngorms Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee paper 1 14 June 2024 Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 4

| | | The Park Author­ity has been able to respond quickly to sight­ings and field signs, inform­ing landown­ers of activ­ity on their land­hold­ing with­in days of the first report. |

Stra­tegic Background

1. In June 2022 the Park Author­ity Board agreed that the Park Author­ity take a lead role in mak­ing an applic­a­tion for beaver trans­lo­ca­tion. The Park Authority’s stra­tegic object­ives of rel­ev­ance to the report­ing presen­ted with this paper are: a) The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan action to ​‘Facil­it­ate beaver trans­lo­ca­tion in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park’ and the asso­ci­ated Cor­por­ate Plan object­ive to ​‘lead on beaver reintroduction’.
2. Stra­tegic risks of rel­ev­ance to con­sid­er­a­tion of the pro­gramme report­ing presen­ted with this paper are: a) 1 Resources: pub­lic sec­tor fin­ances con­strain capa­city to alloc­ate suf­fi­cient resources to deliv­er cor­por­ate plan. b) 11 Repu­ta­tion: Dis­agree­ment between the Park Author­ity and stake­hold­er groups with­in The Park.

Per­form­ance Over­view: Deliv­ery Against Stra­tegic Objectives

1. The pro­ject has suc­cess­fully secured a trans­lo­ca­tion licence and delivered the first phase of releases. Pos­it­ive pro­gress has been made against all pro­ject object­ives in line with the pro­ject times­cales and with­in budget expect­a­tions. The Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to take lead role in releases, land man­ager engage­ment, mon­it­or­ing, and imple­ment­ing the man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion plan.
2. The pro­ject sup­ports wider deliv­ery of Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan actions for spe­cies recov­ery, eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion, future farm­ing and devel­op­ing a more com­plete under­stand­ing of the Nation­al Park’s spe­cies, hab­it­ats and ecosystems.

Per­form­ance Over­view: Risks Under Management

1. Staff­ing and resourcing: The cur­rent high demand on staff resource asso­ci­ated with sur­veys, mon­it­or­ing and land man­ager engage­ment, is pre­dicted to con­tin­ue through­out, and bey­ond, the five-year licence peri­od. The mon­it­or­ing and mit­ig­a­tion plan is centred on the Park Authority’s abil­ity to react quickly and effect­ively. Cur­rent staff capa­city, with the sup­port of rangers and part­ners, is suf­fi­cient to achieve

Cairngorms Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee paper 1 14 June 2024 Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 4 of 4

pro­ject object­ives. Future require­ment for mit­ig­a­tion and man­age­ment are likely to require a re-eval­u­ation of Park Author­ity resource. The pro­ject is also con­sid­er­ing the use of volun­teers to mit­ig­ate resourcing risks.

1. Cur­rent and pro­jec­ted cap­it­al spend for sur­veys, mon­it­or­ing and pre-empt­ive mit­ig­a­tion is with­in oper­a­tion plan budget alloc­a­tions. Poten­tial addi­tion­al cap­it­al require­ments relat­ing to flood embank­ment repair is with­in the envel­ope of the Park Authority’s cap­it­al budget.
2. Repu­ta­tion­al risk. The Park Author­ity has estab­lished two groups to sup­port bet­ter stake­hold­er rela­tion­ships with the farm­ing and croft­ing com­munity. The Cairngorms Agri­cul­tur­al Advis­ory Group (CAAG) and the Upper Spey Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion group.
3. CAAG has a remit to act as a dir­ect line of com­mu­nic­a­tion between the Park Author­ity and the farm­ing and croft­ing com­munity, sup­port­ing col­lab­or­a­tion and fos­ter­ing a wider under­stand­ing of, and more engage­ment with, Park Author­ity activ­it­ies with­in the agri­cul­tur­al sector.
4. The man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion group com­prises land man­agers who are dir­ectly impacted by beaver activ­ity and/​or have beaver ter­rit­or­ies on their land. The group has a remit to ensure an adapt­ive approach to the on the ground applic­a­tion of sup­port avail­able to farm­ers and crofters, informed by first-hand experience.

Con­clu­sions: Per­form­ance Over­view and Mat­ters Mer­it­ing Stra­tegic Review

1. There are no mat­ters of stra­tegic sig­ni­fic­ance which mer­it escal­a­tion at this time in the opin­ion of seni­or man­agers lead­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s link­age to the areas of activ­ity covered by this paper and asso­ci­ated reports.

Sarah Hen­shall Head of Con­ser­va­tion sarahhenshall@​cairngorms.​co.​uk