Performance Committee - Paper 3 - Bringing beavers back project

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 3

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

12 Decem­ber 2025

Page 1 of 6

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 beavers back 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 (NPPP).

c) Any mater­i­al impacts on the Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk management.

Per­form­ance dashboard

1. 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: Pro­gress towards the project’s object­ives	Rat­ing	Com­ment­ary
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 has sup­por­ted the second year of releases with news­pa­per inter­views and art­icles, blogs, social media posts and an advert about the pro­ject in all Pearl and Dean cinemas in the UK for three months until the end of Novem­ber. The Beaver Pro­ject man­ager and officer have engaged with 860 people in the last year (1919 since March 2023); delivered talks to 13 groups and under­taken 16 site

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 3

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

12 Decem­ber 2025

Page 2 of 6

| Release beaver fam­il­ies into the Upper Spey catch­ment to cre­ate a founder pop­u­la­tion to estab­lish a thriv­ing, sus­tain­able pop­u­la­tion. | Green | vis­its or guided walks with groups and landown­ers, one drop-in ses­sion in Boat of Garten and one Train­ing event for Coun­tryside Rangers. The Park Author­ity hos­ted two of the three site vis­its on Day two of the Inter­na­tion­al Beaver Sym­posi­um. 150 del­eg­ates from 26 coun­tries vis­ited Loch Mor­lich and Lochan Mor (Lily Loch, Rothiemurchus). Park Author­ity staff reg­u­larly patrol areas where beavers are present, pro­mot­ing respons­ible access and provid­ing inform­a­tion. Monthly beaver updates are pro­duced and made avail­able on the Park Author­ity web­site. In 2025, 18 kits from eight dif­fer­ent pairs were born in the wild. 52 beavers are present in the upper Spey catch­ment; one beaver is liv­ing near Spey Bay. Year three releases will place at two sites in Decem­ber 2025. A pair and a fam­ily are planned to be released. | | 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. Release sites, and sites where beaver activ­ity is being man­aged, are now vis­ited monthly. The dam on Wild­land and the beaver activ­ity at Lag­gan Bridge are mon­itored weekly at the moment. |

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 3

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

12 Decem­ber 2025

Page 3 of 6

| Max­im­ise oppor­tun­it­ies for envir­on­ment­al and socio-eco­nom­ic bene­fits from beavers. | Green | The Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to respond quickly to sight­ings and field signs, inform­ing landown­ers of activ­ity on their land­hold­ing and car­ry­ing out mit­ig­a­tion where appro­pri­ate, in most cases with­in 24 hours. The Upper Spey Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion group holds reg­u­lar meet­ings to provide advice and guid­ance on implant­a­tion of the plan. The group com­prises land man­agers where beavers are present, rep­res­ent­at­ives from Cairngorms Crofters and Farm­ers Com­munity and NatureScot. There have been three meet­ings this year, with the next sched­uled on the 03 Decem­ber. Tree pro­tec­tion has been installed around Loch Alvie on 11 more trees in response to con­cerns raised by lichen experts. No dams have been removed or bur­rows filled in since the last update. The Flood Embank­ment Sur­vey was repeated but only resur­vey­ing the flood embank­ments in poor con­di­tion (3km) with­in 10 meters of the river and erod­ing riverb­anks (14km). This was com­pleted in Octo­ber 2025. The Beaver Trail at Rothiemurchus con­tin­ues to be a pop­u­lar attrac­tion. An update on the beavers was sent round the Out­door Activ­ity Pro­viders in Strath­spey. The Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership |

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 3

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

12 Decem­ber 2025

Page 4 of 6

| Imple­ment a research and mon­it­or­ing plan to provide an evid­ence base for the pos­it­ive and neg­at­ive impacts of beaver. | Green | (CBP) con­fer­ence was also atten­ded in Novem­ber. Inform­al meet­ings to dis­cuss beavers are planned with staff of Heath­er­lea and Spey­side Wild­life in Decem­ber. Monthly site mon­it­or­ing con­tin­ues at all release and activ­ity sites. We have iden­ti­fied bur­rows or lodges in eight of the nine known beaver ter­rit­or­ies. A pro­gramme of annu­al mon­it­or­ing is under­way, includ­ing eDNA sampling on five sites and drone sur­veys on three sites. The res­ults of our mon­it­or­ing and research were delivered at the Inter­na­tion­al Beaver Sym­posi­um that was held in Inverness dur­ing Septem­ber 2025. |

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:

α) The NPPP action to ​‘Facil­it­ate beaver trans­lo­ca­tion in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park’ and the asso­ci­ated Cor­por­ate Plan object­ive to ​‘lead on beaver reintroduction’.

1. Stra­tegic risks of rel­ev­ance to con­sid­er­a­tion of the pro­gramme report­ing presen­ted with this paper are:

α) 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 Nation­al Park.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 3

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

12 Decem­ber 2025

Page 5 of 6

Per­form­ance over­view: deliv­ery against stra­tegic objectives

1. The pro­ject has suc­cess­fully secured a trans­lo­ca­tion licence and delivered the first and second year of releases, with a third year planned. 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. It is often referred to as the ​“gold-stand­ard” for beaver rein­tro­duc­tion. Ele­ments of our approach have been used by Trees for Life in their con­sulta­tion events around beavers in the Loch Ness catchment.

2. The pro­ject sup­ports wider deliv­ery of NPPP 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 demand on staff resource asso­ci­ated with sur­veys, releases, mon­it­or­ing, mit­ig­a­tion and land man­ager engage­ment has been mit­ig­ated by the employ­ment of a Beaver Pro­ject Officer, who star­ted in April 2025. As the pop­u­la­tion increases and beavers become more com­mon­place, resource alloc­a­tion will focus on man­aging impacts. 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 dur­ing times of peak demand, is suf­fi­cient to achieve pro­ject objectives.

2. 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.

3. 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. The Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to deliv­er exem­plary sup­port to the farm­ing and croft­ing com­munity, with no oth­er equivalent

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 3

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

12 Decem­ber 2025

Page 6 of 6

to this in Scot­land. The appoint­ment of a new Agri­cul­tur­al Advisor has fur­ther aided the improve­ment of these stake­hold­er relations.

1. 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.

2. The Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion Group com­prise of the Park Author­ity, NatureScot and 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 27 Novem­ber 2025 sarahhenshall@​cairngorms.​co.​uk