If you live in this area you or near many of the districts watercourses you can help:
American mink surveying background information:
This project forms part of the largest ever initiative to remove breeding American mink from north Scotland. Covering 20,000 square kilometres, from rural Tayside across Aberdeenshire, Moray, the Cairngorms and the Highlands, the Scottish Mink Initiative is a new partnership between Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland (RAFTS), Scottish Wildlife Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the University of Aberdeen, and 16 other organisations.
Aiming to protect native wildlife, such as water voles, ground-nesting birds and economically important populations of salmon and game birds, to help protect local economic stability for the benefit of local communities, the initiative signals a £920,000 investment in native wildlife conservation. You are now a part of this vital team.
The River Deveron Biosecurity Project Outline
The American mink is a semiaquatic carnivore that first became established in the wild in Britain in the 1950s following numerous escapes and releases from fur farms. It is an Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) and has now spread throughout most of the country. Within the Deveron district, the Deveron, Bogie & Isla Rivers Charitable Trust (DBIT), has taken a big step toward the management of the creature within its biosecurity project.
The following objectives are paramount to the success of the project involving all INNS.
1. Prevent the introduction and spread of INNS species within the Deveron fisheries district.
2. Develop optimum detection and surveillance of, and rapid response to, new INNS.
3. Develop effective control and eradication programs for INNS.
As a result the commencement of a control & eradication program of American Mink has begun. Volunteers for the Deveron, Bogie & Isla Rivers Charitable Trust Biosecurity Project are known as “River Champions”.
