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January 2001

Schools Project

Fishing the Annan

Environmental Managers Quarterly Report November 2000

Fencing

The 2000 – 2001 fencing programmes has been extended to areas of the river where previously work has not been carried out. Small lengths of fencing will be erected on stretches of the Dryfe and the Ae, both about 1,000m. The rational behind this is to raise the profile of the scheme in areas where previously work has not been carried out. This will ensure that in the future when the scheme moves to these areas that the landowners and farmers are aware of what is on offer and how we can help them.  Other fencing projects have been negotiated on the Annan Water (Kyla Park) and the Breconside burn. Negotiations are also started on sites on the Evan water. The bank stabilisation works mentioned in the previous report will take place in the winter months using willow revetments similar to those carried out successfully on the Moffat Water at Crofthead farm.

Bankside revetments

Last years willow planting has proved to be very successful with even the areas planted late in the season (May) flourishing. In the areas were siltation from bank erosion is a problem this will become the preferred method to use over the next few years. Other techniques such as Log and Xmas tree whilst very useful in areas where the materials are close to hand become expensive when materials have to be hauled a long way. It is also possible to install the willow revetments when the water is fairly high whilst it become impractical on larger watercourses to install the Log and Xmas trees in anything other than low conditions.

Some log and Christmas tree has been installed this summer on the Moffat water at Bodesbeck On the Annan water a similar method using willow scrub instead of spruce tops has been attempted. The first impressions were good however a large section of bank has now been washed downstream of the works. This will be addressed in the summer of 2001.

Obstructions

Some success has been had with one of the weirs on the Milk mentioned in the previous report. The owner of the downstream weir has agreed to re-install a fish pass that was installed originally by RADSFB some years ago. Once this weir is sorted out it will become apparent how much of a problem the one under the motorway is.

On a check of the culverts installed by the M6JV it was apparent that some of the fish passes where broken and becoming ineffective. This has been highlighted and with the assistance of Young Associates, remedial work is taking place. A rethink was needed around the design of these, as although they worked effectively as fish passes they were not robust enough to withstand the forces of the water and debris going through them under spate conditions. The structures are now being re-installed using materials that are more robust and able to withstand spates.

The weir at the Wamphrey Railway bridge may still be causing problems. When electrofishing upstream of it this year we found no 0+fry (trout and salmon) whilst the numbers of 1+ fish were relatively good. This is surprising as salmon and sea trout were lifted over the structure manually last year. Fish were also observed passing over the structure under there own steam. There may be other reasons behind this lack of fish such as pollution and this is being investigated. The presence of 1+ fish does not discount pollution, as they may well be more tolerant of pollution episodes. What is definitely known is that fish again went over the weir this year in very good numbers and there should be ample spawning stock in the Wamphray this year.

A number of people have shown concern that in some parts of the river there appears to be a lot of woody debris racked up from floods. All these areas have been looked at and so far no problems have been noticed. Although sometimes these types of rafts may cause problems normally, they are passable. In general having these rafts of flood debris in the river is of benefit to both the invertebrate population of the river and to fish life. Trout in particular are very abundant around these rafts and salmon numbers (particularly 1++ parr) are high. In most situations, therefore it is best to leave these areas alone unless they can be demonstrated to be causing a problem.

Education

Last winters successful salmon in the classroom project will be repeated this year at three schools. Johnston Bridge primary school has already signed up and other schools are already interested. At Johnston Bridge, the project will be split into two with field trips and visits carried out for both the lower school (5 – 8 year olds) and the upper school (8 – 11 year olds). Lockerbie primary School is also taking part in the project. Many other schools have shown interest but most of them want to run the project in a years time as they have already decided on their Easter and summer term timetables. The intention is to spread this scheme as widely as possible, possibly running two programmes on the Annan and one on the Kirtle. As most of the schools in this region are fairly small each school will be revisited every 3years. This should ensure that all the pupils are reached at least once in their primary school career.

The leaflet ‘Saving Salmon, The Anglers Role’ is completed and is ready for distribution. As many anglers as possible will be given these leaflets as soon as possible with the intention of including the leaflet with all day/week/season tickets that are available on the river by next season. The leaflet has been out to consultation most of the summer and has taken on as many of the suggestions as possible during that time. It would not have been possible without the support of Solway Partnership and the flexible attitude to copyright from the Atlantic Salmon Trust. Many of the rivers in the Solway have rules regarding the exploitation of spring fish at the beginning of the season but the loophole has always been that theses fish occasionally get killed later on in the when coloured. This leaflet should go some way to reducing this problem, providing distribution is wide enough and it is read.

On the 20^th of August an open day was held for river users and other interested parties to see what is being achieved on the river. The turnout was poor which probably reflects the apathy that is sometimes present amongst people. Hopefully everyone that did turn out found the day interesting and learnt something. Future open days will be preceded by a more direct approach for getting a higher turn out by telephoning round and inviting people.

On October, the 21^st/22^nd the Grayling Society held its AGM in Dumfries. On the 21^st, there was a conference in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. I ran one of these workshops looking at the effects streambed intervention works. A flume was built that will contained sand representing the river bed substrate. Structures such as current deflectors, croys and weirs were placed in this and the effects on the substrate demonstrated. It was an opportunity to demonstrate the effects both positive and negative for this type of work in a controlled situation. This flume is now being copied by other fisheries groups to demonstrate the same thing.

A newsletter is currently being written and will be distributed around the middle of December. This will be placed on the Annanline Web Site run by Andy Dickson.

Employment of an assistant

As some may be aware the original assistant left after just 5 days. She was replaced by Jackie Graham who has now been working for about 3months. She has sat and past her SFCC habitat evaluation exams and is currently finishing of a detailed habitat survey of the Kirtle Water. She has proved very capable and if possible funds should be found to retain her beyond the six-month period first envisaged. This could be achieved in the short term by rolling forward the employment budget for the assistant for the 2001-2 season.

Electrofishing

It was hoped that the electrofishing survey this year would larger than in previous years due to the employment of a full time assistant. Unfortunately, the gear became faulty early in the season and the manufacturers did not return the equipment until October since then the high water has made electrofishing difficult. A few sites have been surveyed on the Kirtle and in key areas of the Annan (such as where habitat improvements have been carried out). As soon as the data is collated, copies will be sent round all board members.

Habitat Survey

As well as the Mien catchment, which was completed by the 1^st assistant, surveys have been carried out on the Breconside burn, the Hallgaurds Burn and part of the Milk. The main river that surveys have been carried out on in recent months is the Kirtle Water, which is almost completed. The Kirtle survey in particular is proving very interesting. There are major problems in the upper part of the catchment with excessive siltation due to erosion. They are however very solvable problems that would respond very well to a mixture of fencing and re-establishment of a healthy riparian zone. Over this winter the data from the Kirtle will be analysed and used to formulate a management plan for this catchment.

All the Data is being collected according to the protocols stipulated by the SFCC habitat survey into the national habitat database this winter. Although this methodology is ore longwinded and takes longer than the original Annan survey the data that it produces is very detailed and will be of use to a variety of groups as well as RADSFB.

Pollution

There has been very few pollution incidents reported this summer, although there are indications that there may have been a couple (see obstructions Whamphrey). There has been a couple of recorded incidents at the top of the Mein and these are now being taken into hand by SEPA

On the Mein, following concerns expressed by RADSFB, SEPA have carried out a biological survey of the invertebrate communities within the burn. They conclude that whilst the water quality was good at all the sites tested there was indications that the watercourse had been effected by acute pollution incidents in the upper reaches and that there was probably a problem with chronic pollution caused by the land use practices in the catchment. They considered that it was likely that the watercourse was recovering as whilst Taxa found that score highest on the BMWP methodology were present they were not abundant. SEPA intend to carry out a follow up survey this coming spring. The full report is attached to the back of this report (Appendix 1)

Again on the Mein, FWAG have launched a landwise project on the Mien to try and educate farmers on best practice with regards to such things as slurry application and disposal of silage effluent. As the problems on this watercourse appear to be chronic, as well as the occasional acute incident, it would be sensible to create buffer strips alongside the Mein to reduce the enrichment of the watercourse. By fencing of the margins and planting a few riparian trees many of the nutrients can be locked up and released back to the river in a more usable fashion as leaf litter and invertebrates. To this aim, an offer has been made to FWAG fund the creation of buffer strips through the existing RADSFB habitat improvement scheme. No fixed figure has been set for this yet and it is envisaged that it will be decided on a case by case basis how much should be spent on each farm. It is likely to be only a small proportion of the capital available for the RADSFB project.

A list of known pollution events since the last board meeting has been provided by SEPA and is attached to the back of this report. (Appendix 2)

Kirtle project

With this report, there is also a draft description of a new project along similar lines to the Annan. (Appendix 3) It is hoped that this project will get of the ground this coming April. It makes a lot of sense to attempt to run a project on the Kirtle for a number of reasons. One of the problems with the Annan Scheme is that because the river is fairly big the improvements that have been carried out so far are a drop in the ocean and it is doubtful that there will be any noticeable impact on fish catches for a number of years yet. As the Kirtle is far smaller, works carried out to improve it will have a noticeable effect on fish catches in a more rapidly. If this can be achieved it would be a useful demonstration of the benefits of river habitat improvement schemes. Also, the habitat survey on the Kirtle is highlighting many areas that have got acute habitat problems which would respond readily to fencing and riparian zone improvements.

Equipment

As the office has been moved recently none of the equipment listed in appendix 2 of the management plan has been purchased yet. It was proposed that instead of the scanner listed there that a digital camera should be bought instead. This will make the archiving of point photographs in surveys and areas where improvements have been made a lot easier. The 35mm camera would still be used to create slides for presentations but the use of a digital camera for all the other work would save the scheme as much as it cost in the first year. All the other equipment mentioned in the scheme will be purchased shortly.

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