Catching up on days gone by
A collaborative project, combining the efforts of many river boards, fishery trusts and angling associations within the inner Moray Firth is now under way. The Moray Firth Sea Project (MFSTP) aims to address the imbalance in sea trout management, collate existing information on stocks and identify where further data is required to improve management practice. Marcus Walters has been employed as the full time Project Officer.
Hogging control for the next three years
The Trust secured a £20,000 grant from the Esmee Fairburn Foundation to control Giant Hogweed for the next 3 years. Huntly Fishings has been spraying the Bogie system whilst the Trust has been spraying the Isla and its tributaries. We would urge all riparian owners to spray or cut any hogweed on their property before the seeds are dispersed and keep a lookout in any burns nearby as Hogweed can also be dispersed by wind and birds.
Inverts indicate water quality
In response to concerns that invertebrate numbers may have declined in the Deveron catchment the Trust held an ‘Invertebrate Identification’ workshop in April. Craig Macadam of Bradan Aquasurveys Ltd instructed gillies and Trust staff in the identification of inverts to enable us to monitor changes in river fly abundance and species.
Fishing for schools
The Trust has continued its ‘salmon goes to school’ educational programme with visits to 8 primary schools in the catchment. The programme consists of an illustrated presentation explaining the life cycle of salmon with emphasis on the importance of good water quality for healthy bio-diversity. The children look after 100 salmon eggs until they hatch. Subsequently they release the fry into their natal stream. The children return later in the year to the same stream to search for their fish using electro-fishing.
Funding for fencing
The Deveron, Bogie and Isla Rivers Trust recently completed a fencing project that commenced last year which was funded by the Lottery Fund ‘Awards for All’. Local farmer Keith Stewart kindly agreed for us to erect 600 metres of stock fencing alongside the river Bogie at Greenhaugh Farm near Huntly. Trust staff and Jimmy Minty (River Superintendent) assisted the farm staff in erecting the cattle watering.