About this episode

The episode discusses the ecological benefits of beaver reintroduction in Scotland with guest Tom Bowser.

Welcome to The Thrill of The Hill. This is the third and final episode in our series exploring beaver reintroduction in Scotland. Across the last two episodes, we’ve looked at the challenges, concerns, and practical realities beavers bring to land management. Today, we’re joined by farmer and rewilding advocate Tom Bowser from Lerrocks farm and we’ll be focusing on the other side of the story — the ecological case for beavers, the benefits they can bring, and what a future with more beavers in Scotland might look like. Timestamps 02.28 Introducing Tom Bowser 07.28 Why are beavers worth having back in Scotland? 08.36 Beavers: ecosystem engineers and keystone species 12.40 Beavers, the most controversial animal that we have at the moment? 14.10 Practical benefits of beavers 22.03 Biodiversity and hairy bottomed handstands! 27.23 Balancing the benefits with the challenges 32.49 NatureScot beaver team and available assistance 37.04 Where are we likely to see beavers in the future? 43.08 Food production and nature restoration, not always opposing forces FAS Resources Thrill of the Hill Episode 12: A Damming Conclusion…

People in this episode

Guest: Tom Bowser

Topics covered

• beaver reintroduction
• land management
• ecological benefits
• rewilding
• biodiversity
• nature restoration

Keywords

• beavers
• ecological case
• land management
• rewilding
• biodiversity
• Scotland

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NatureScot

Places: Scotland, Lerrocks farm

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