Editor,

I refer to your article Concerns raised over plans to re-introduce beavers, Cambrian News, 17 Feb.

As secretary of the New Dovey Fishery association (1929) Ltd who control the fishing of 15 miles of the river Dyfi I would like to reiterate concerns raised by local farmers, as well as some concerns of our own.

Some years ago, owing to concerns raised by the Environment Agency regarding obstructions/barriers to the passage of salmonoids to the spawning grounds, on the tributaries of the Dyfi, members of the Dovey Fisheries waled the tributaries to highlight the problems, which were to be addressed by the Environment Agency.

If beavers are introduced to the Dyfi they will migrate to the tributaries where they will build dams and will exaggerate the problem.

Most of the banks of the Dyfi are clay and are used by sand martins for nesting.If farmers seek permission from the NRW to restore erosion damage by floods using rock armament, they are refused permission on the grounds that the sand martins will lose their nesting sites.

Beavers by their nature burrow into the clay banks and fell trees whose root systems strengthen the bank, which will cause more erosion and loss of valuable land and loss of nesting sites for sand martins.

Beavers introduced to rivers in Scotland have multiplied and have become a problem and the same thing will inevitably happen in the Dyfi Valley, a valley that as locals we perhaps do not appreciate its beauty and the way it has remained virtually unchanged during the last 100 years.If these rodents are introduced and multiply the beauty of the Dyfi Valley will be lost as has happened on the Rio Grande in Argentina where now there is a price for beaver heads in order to try and reduce their numbers.

I would urge the National Resources Wales and the Welsh Government to seriously consider before they issue a licence for introduction of Beavers to the demise of our beautiful Dyfi Valley.

Richard N. Evans, Machynlleth