The European Beaver is a Marmite species – people do seem either to love it or hate it. And by ‘hate’ I am not exaggerating ‘mildly dislike’; some people really do hate it. Considering this is a species that has been absent from the UK for centuries and is still found only in relatively few places (and not seen incredibly easily in those places) these strong feelings are rarely fuelled by deep and personal knowledge of the species but by seeing the species on film or in captivity or by hearsay and rumour. That doesn’t make the feelings any less strongly felt.
This is Tom Bowser’s account of how he brought Beavers to his land and the friends he made and lost along the way. Books are often described as ‘deeply personal’ accounts but this one deserves the title. This was his reintroduction and rewilding project, it affected his land, his family, his neighbours and his community, and it wasn’t all sweetness and harmony. Not for nothing is the book subtitled ‘Fighting for Scotland’s beavers’.
The main fights were with fellow land owners, members of the same farming organisations of which the author is a member. That must feel very different from a spat on social media with someone you’ve never met because these are physical neighbours who share the highs and lows of shared experiences of a locality and a way of life. But it seems, in Scotland as elsewhere in the UK, that the farming unions are generally obstacles to progress on nature conservation – often very effective and powerful obstacles.
Practically everyone who seeks to make the world a better place, whether it be economically, socially or environmentally, finds themselves in conflict with opposing views. That simply goes with the territory. This book is a valuable and informative case study of the author’s experiences, some of which were bruising ones.
Lest anyone should think that it’s only with the author, and only with Beavers, that sharp conflicts break out there are four chapters which take us to the Ramsay family elsewhere in Scotland and their experiences with Beavers, to Mull and Dave Sexton’s experiences being on the side of another reintroduced species, the White-tailed Eagle, to Roy Dennis’s work on a wide range of reintroductions in Scotland and beyond, and to Ruth Tingay’s work on highlighting illegal raptor persecution across the UK and campaigning for change. All illuminate the personal toll involved in trying to make a difference.
The author, whom I’ve never met, writes so openly and comes across as such a likeable fellow that I think it would be difficult not to be cheering him on as he and his family and friends fight for Scotland’s Beavers.
The cover? Quite striking, very appropriate and immediately recognisable. I’d give it 9/10.
Waters of Life: fighting for Scotland’s beavers by Tom Bowser is published by Berlinn.
Buy this book direct from Blackwell’s – a proper bookshop (and I’ll get a little bit of money from them).
‘Opposition’ seems to be an almost physiological response inherent in humans, a reflex response to any change in the status quo. It seems irrational to the point of being psychologically unhinged to respond to the very best intentions of environmentally positive projects with vitriolic opposition. As you say it goes with the territory and I suspect has roots deep in our ancestry.
I do agree, Bill.
Albert Schweitzer: ‘Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.’
And man is a very greedy animal as well.