River Tweed (Scottish Borders)

1) Riparian Habitats Project

The end of 2002 saw the completion of all physical works associated with Phase 1 of the Riparian Habitats Project – part of the larger catchment-wide Tweed Rivers Heritage Project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Over the last three years of the Project, the Foundation completed works on the Upper Tweed, Ettrick and Yarrow, Leader, Whiteadder, Breamish and Till rivers comprising fencing, planting, instream works, obstacle removal and fish pass installation. Some of the work has been undertaken solely by the Foundation, whilst a lot of projects have been in partnership with other agencies – including local Angling Associations, landowners, the Environment Agency, Scottish Water and local Councils. It has been a tremendous achievement benefiting many areas of riverine habitat within the catchment.

In May the Heritage Lottery Fund approved a further round of funding for the Tweed Rivers Heritage Project which will allow the Foundation to continue with its programme of habitat works until mid 2005. Phase 2, which got underway in July, will include fencing and planting works as well as further educational and interpretation projects. Over the next 3 years the Foundation will be spending around £165,000 on further habitat works which will again attract a 50% grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The first project has already been completed on the Douglas Burn where bank protection work has been undertaken on this important tributary of the Yarrow. Before the end of the year a fencing and planting project was underway at Caverton Mill on the Kale Water, a tributary of the Teviot.

During the autumn, projects were completed to provide access to the upper reaches of the Eye Water, with alterations to Reston Cauld, and to the Slitrig Water in Hawick where alterations to a rock shelf allow salmon passage upstream. Following these successful breaches all the principal salmon spawning areas in the catchment are now fully open for the first time in 190 years. Having tackled practically all the obstacles to migrating salmon and trout in the larger channels, attention will now turn to the smaller streams only used by trout.

The programme of habitat enhancement continued in 2004 as part of the second phase of the Tweed Foundation’s Riparian Habitats Project (part of the larger catchment-wide Tweed Rivers Heritage Project which is part-funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund). Work included fencing of 6km of the Kale Water, 2.4km of the River Eye, 1.2 km on the Ettrick Water, 0.8km on the Yarrow Water. Further work was started on the Gala Water, Ettrick Water and the River Teviot.
The WTT contributed £9000 over the three years of the project.

2) Tweed Trout & Grayling Initiative

Tweed Trout and Grayling angling is administered in the Borders by the Tweed Angling Associations who are grouped together as the Federation of Border Angling Associations (FBAA) also known as the Angling Clubs. Angling policy, that is the methods of fishing and the numbers of fish that can be taken from the system, is based upon subjective judgements of the clubs and is not related to the natural productivity of the rivers. Indeed for many years the Associations have been boosting the fish available for angling by stocking with farmed trout and using this as the criteria for selling fishing tickets. This is now generally considered to be unsustainable and may even be depressing the natural wild stocks of trout.

This Initiative is based on a consortium of local Angling Clubs, the Tweed Foundation, local communities and natural historians to create self sustaining management of the wild trout and grayling fisheries in the Tweed. It is a flagship project and an example to other national and international fisheries managers setting a framework and a beacon for community management of local fisheries at a new level. It will target the young, as well as those with an existing interest, linking to the Bridging the Borders education project (part of the Heritage Lottery funded Tweed Rivers Heritage Project) and microbusinesses connected with Fisheries.

Aims

The aims of the Initiative are
I: To strengthen the biodiversity of the stocks of native Brown-trout and Grayling in the Tweed and its tributaries by gathering better information on them and their environment as a base for more directed and intensive conservation and management
II: To improve the Brown-trout and Grayling angling of the Tweed and its tributaries through knowledge-based management
III: To increase the satisfaction of Brown-trout and Grayling anglers on the Tweed and tributaries by gathering information on what they regard as “good fishing” so that management decisions and practices can be directed towards meeting their requirements.

It is likely that there are a variety of different and distinct fish stocks, of varying strength, within the Trout and Grayling populations of the Tweed catchment which need managing in slightly different ways in terms of their habitat and the level of fishing pressure that they can sustain. Basic research by the Tweed Foundation has been and is directed to finding this out. Whilst the project will use this research, it is not itself a research proposal. The strength of the wild resouce will be established by this project and the type and intensity of the fishing that can be sustained will then be the basis for marketing, especially through the FishTweed project.

The actions of the Consortium would be based on past findings from this fundamental research and would extend it in terms of improving understanding of the pressures angling puts on what stocks. The social dimension of Tweed trout angling would be studied for the first time, with surveys of how anglers use their waters, how they perceive their fishing is at present and how they would like it to be in the future. This last information would then set the aims for fishery managers or, if angler expectations were found to be unreasonable for wild populations, then the aim would be to change those expectations to fit reality.
It is expected that the initiative will lead the way in Brown-trout and Grayling fishery management on many Scottish rivers. It has the wholehearted support of both the River Tweed Commissioners and Tweed Foundation who have pledged to support the move.

The Wild Trout Trust will provide cash funding of £7000 over the three years of this project, plus further support from the Hardy & Greys Rods for Conservation Scheme and income generated from lots on our on-line auction held annualy in March.

Click here for a full project description THE TWEED TROUT AND GRAYLING INITIATIVE.pdf (145k)