no extinct animal or bird should be introduced.

 

All of the conversation and comments were on a Public forum so are therefore not confidential

This was posted and got a negative response:

Michael Davies

"care about forests and then introduce beavers you lot must be nuts"

To which I responded:

"Terry Hooper

Michael Davies Are you just anti wildlife or is there a particular reason why you dislike beavers? My guess is that you have not carried out any research on beavers or their part in environmental landscaping. "Beavers are ecosystem engineers because they create, modify, and maintain habitat and ecosystems. They consequently have a large impact on the biodiversity of an area. They bring wood into the water, and that wood provides food and shelter for insects. Those insects become food for other species, including salmon."

And someone else commented:

"Steven Smith

Terry Hooper Would I be right in thinking Beavers kill trees & therefore damage woodlands"

Oh, then Andrew Snowden having taken a week to think of a response:

"Terry Hooper Yes, by destroying existing habitat, habitat established since the beaver disappeared. You have no way to control how the beaver works, or indeed if it moves to where it's not wanted or welcome. It presumes that the release point has sufficient food species for the beaver too. In all, it's one of the sillier "rewilding" projects, of dubious benefit, and no-one talks about just how you eradicate them again if they make a mess of things. Beavers and forestry don't go together."

oh then this:

"Phil Webster

Terry Hooper They were eradicated 200 years ago with good reason....Go to the library and study....Stop quoting internet snowflake garbage...."

So I responded:

"Andrew Snowdon They do not drive to a spot and take a couple beaver out of a box and set them down just anywhere a lot6 of work goes into looking at locations, etc.. You lost any argument the moment you wrote: "no-one talks about just how you eradicate them again". Kill them. Rather like legally protected red squirrels are still killed by commercial forestry groups? The moment you wrote those words you failed. Conversation ended."

And to Webster:

"Phil Webster You are an idiot. They were killed for 'fun sport'. I have been a naturalist since 1977 and studied mammals and exotics -it is why I am a mammalogist. I have books on wildlife going back to the 18th century and many papers by naturalists and zoologists from that time forward. It seems that the person lacking knowledge is you. And "snow flake" 😂😂😂😂 oh man you are so lame. You could have tried "tree hugger" or one of the other kiddy insults you anti wildlife people love to throw around. Odd you should mention books though; did you know humans cut down trees to pulp them and make paper -you may have missed that episode of Blue Peter. No beavers involved. Until you can put forward a fact based argument best to just sit back and maybe read some of the volumes of work on beaver research."

The one thing you find on any "rewilding" group (for Scotland for instance) are the anti-wildlife people. Lots of them. They cite some very bad 'science' and really they need to explain more WHY they are on these groups.

For my part I changed my mind over 20 years ago regarding introducing a species (it is NOT "re-introduction" because the native species was wiped out so you are introducing new species). There are people out there who love killing things and most chat on groups about waiting for wild cat introduction so they can shoot them. There is a lot of debate about when lynx and wolves might be introduced so they can go out and shoot one.

Until gun laws are changed and people are stopped from going out every night to kill for fun -wildlife of all types and even the odd farm animal or pet- then you are simply restocking for killing.

I have become convince that any species wiped out by a country or State should never be brought back. Time and again we see this; wolves were almost extinct in the United States and they brought them back and they are slaughtered in numbers...so more wolves need to be introduced. We have seen the EU protect wolves but now, for political and voting reasons some of the "protectors" have turned pro hunting.

Man made problems created flooding. We see more and more of the environment destroyed and the flooding increasing. The beaver did not cause flooding and had to be wiped out. That is pure nonsense and low IQ 'thinking'.

Unless forestry groups can guarantee -legally- that they have a no kill policy and can protect animals introduced then they should not. There are taxidermists that pay good money for specific animals -they even have a set buy price for various animals and a lot of badgers ('road kill' of course) are in the hands of taxidermists.

So long as wildlife crime goes largely unpunished and shooters are out every night having their 'fun' no extinct animal or bird should be introduced.