Cromarty Firth Fishery Board

Two winters ago volunteers from the Dingwall Environment Group and The Conservation Volunteers planted local willow cuttings and alders along bare banks of the Peffery.   After two growing seasons the trees are now well established.  The trees are now providing shelter, shading and feed for the fish in the river.  The roots will help stabilise the banksides and reduce erosion.

Large scale planting with native trees would help to restore habitat and productivity in many rivers in the Cromarty Firth region particularly in over-grazed upper catchments.

As well as the long term smolt trapping operation on the River Bran, we are operating two Rotary Screw Traps this year.  One of these will be used to monitor the effects of flow regimes on the Orrin to optimise smolt exit at Orrin Dam, the other has been installed on the River Blackwater.   The Blackwater trap will be operated as part of a project with Glasgow University.  By tagging smolts with electronic PIT tags, new information on the genetic influences on marine survival will be investigated, this work will also give a marine survival rate for the Blackwater to compare with our long term research on the River Bran.

Trap ready for installation

The Rotary Screw Traps are portable by trailer and then assembled in situ.  Two pontoons support a large Archemedes screw which filters smolts from the water flowing through it and then holds them in a trap box.

Trap installed and running

With help from The Conservation Volunteers Green Gym group, dead Japanese knotweed stems on the Peffery were cut back and burned.    The clearance of the dead stems makes access much easier later in the year for spraying and stem injecting regrowth.

We are working with Forestry Commission Scotland to test a new method of tree planting on a tributary of the Blackwater.  Some bankside areas are being planted using traditional staked treeguards but in other areas tree shelters are being built using felled conifers.

Felled trees are held in place by stakes to form a shelter before native alders and aspens are planted and then more conifers used to build up the walls of the shelter.  By the time the shelters have broken down the trees within them should be well established.

New biosecurity signs are being placed at strategic points around the Cromarty Firth region.  Signs for anglers are to be located at points where anglers visiting from outside the region are most likely to see them.  Signs for canoeists and boat users are to be located at slipways and regular put in points.

The Achanalt smolt trap on the River Bran has been assembled and is ready for this year’s smolt run.  The trap catches the entire smolt run of the River Bran. Smolts are transported by road, past an impassable downstream obstruction at Luichart Dam and then released below the lowest hydro dam on the Conon system.  Returning adults are able to pass upstream through  the hydro dams and return to the Bran to spawn.

Stop logs removed to divert flow of Bran into smolt trap

On Saturday the 23rd of March Russell Jobson from the Woodland Trust visited the Orrin for a tree planting afternoon with volunteers from the Dingwall Environment Group.

After a planting demonstration the volunteers managed to keep warm on a bitterly cold afternoon by planting native alder, willow, rowan, hazel, aspen and oak along the banks of the Orrin.

The successful clearance of Rhododendron from the banks of the Orrin has left several kilometers of bankside which would benefit from the planting of native trees.    The Woodland Trust generously donated nearly 2,500 alders,willows,aspen, birch and oak trees to help restore native riverside woodland.  Fishery Board staff and volunteers are planting these trees into areas which have been cleared of rhododendron.

Other tree planting works are also taking place in the Blackwater and Peffery catchments, with the support and donation of trees by the Forestry Commission.

Members of The Conservation Volunteers Green Gym celebrate the clearance of the last rhododendron on the banks of the River Orrin.   This marks the completion of four years of hard work by volunteers and bailiffs which was supported by the SEPA restoration fund.   Bailiffs will carry out follow up works for several years to spray any regrowth and prevent reinfestation.

The Conservation Volunteers and Fishery Board staff are on track to finish clearing Rhododendron from the banks of the River Orrin this winter.  In some areas chainsaws are being used by wherever possible a technique called ‘lever and mulch’ is being used.  This method uses hand tools to cut branches back and then leverage is applied to the main stems to either break them at ground level or uproot them completely.  The cut branches then act as a mulch to prevent regrowth.  This method can be very effective and requires less follow up treatment than traditional cutting and burning.

Before clearance works

After clearance works.  Not only are stems removed but also roots and stumps. The lack of vegetation under the rhododendron shows how damaging it is to riverbank habitats, increasing erosion and supressing native plants.

Later in the spring with the support of the Woodland Trust native trees will be planted into some of the areas previously cleared on the Orrin.