Frid, Frank, the Beaver & Me

This needs a little explanation. Frank Rosell of Telemark University College in Norway is a key expert on the European Beaver, Frid Berge is his partner and a planning & development manager with the Sejord municipality.

In June 2008 I stayed with them in Sejord and, as Environment Minister,, went out on an amazing over night excursion with Frank on the Norwegian river he has studied for most of his life to watch beavers prior to their capture to start off the Scottish Beaver Project .

Tonight a reception in the Parliament marked five years of that highly successful innovation which I am very proud to have initiated. It was great to see Frank & Frid again and a selfie with them and a life sized beaver seemed , somehow, appropriate !

My successor as Environment Minister , Roseanna Cunningham, was there for the celebrations too as she was the person who finally got to see Frank's trapped beavers from Norway introduced to the waters at Knapdale in Argyll.

I suspect she may well blip her own take on all this tonight.