1017 mile Habitat Project in Tay Headwaters

[Willie The Gillie]

salmonnut
Many thanks for your kind offer.
Best Regards
Jock

[kenziemac]

Hi John,
Back from my travels, where do you find the time??
Gone for a month and another project well underway.
Not quite sure what I can do to help with this one other than supply a box of your favourites for auction / raffle ?
Let me know type / qty and I will send to you when / if you need.
Keep going.
Kenziemac.

[Willie The Gillie]

Danny
Your flees would raise plenty for the TWCP.
On the time side of things I'm not bothered because I've got a whole day off arranged for Dunday the 37th of Julember !!!!!!!!!
Best Regards
Jock

[salmonnut]

Dunday the 37th of Julember !!!!!!!!!That must be the oppertune day when the sloe berries are ready for picking ;D ;D ;D

[victorclem]

We had a big week surveying last week, and with a bit of luck should push past the 200-mile mark this week, at which point there will not be much left to do on the first river system. Will report back at some point this week.

VC

[victorclem]

Pleased to say we got our 200 miles today, just, total now standing at 200.5 miles.
We will finish all we can do on the Lochay next week, and will be doing a quick position check to see what if anything we can progress while report is being written up. Things get a bit trickier coming in to the main part of the stalking season, but is looks like we will have possibilities for another 200 miles shortly, subject to a check on finances.

Regards,

VC

[victorclem]

Good weather forecast for the week so we should get our first river system completed, or at least all we can for now.......

VC

[robbie]

Hi Victor,
Any more interesting findings or unexpected discoveries you can share?

[victorclem]

Robbie,

Just finishing off the high stuff right up in the hills, beyond were any fish can get to. Water voles are 10-a penny, and we are bored now of recording them. We might be finished Lochay tomorrow, or at least all we can do for now. Planning to go to part of Dochart next week as we have the funding to press on a bit while I do the writing up of the first river system. Unfortunately, because we have to go back to Lochay after stag season is over, interim report will not be ready until early November.

I have been GPS-ing potential spawning areas at top of Lochay, and thankfully there is spawning gravel up near the top, and little scattered pockets at intervals below that. For a while I had thought that this might not exist and that the top part of the river might be redundant for salmon. happily, not the case.

VC

[victorclem]

We have today just finished all we can do on our first river system, the Lochay. 251 miles in total. We will finish off here after the stag season is over, after 20th October. There are still approx 45 miles to go, probably 4 days work.

In the mean time, we are going across to the Dochart to do some stuff there, while I start our interim report on the Lochay.

We will probably just do three weeks or so on the Dochart so that we dont get too far ahead of ourselves. We are likely to find different issues in a different river catchment area. We will know better what they might be in another 7-10 days or so.

VC

[Willie The Gillie]

Here's the audio clip with Louise Batchelor of the BBC with Victor, Alex & myself

news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6910000/newsid_6913000/6913069.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm&nol_storyid=6913069&news=1

Regards

Jock

[doublehooked]

Cant get the audio link to open.
Anybody else having problems, or how to resolve.

Regards
Jake.

[robbie]

Me too. Tried BBC Scotland site and my pooter froze!. My pooter not the site at fault methinks

[rpsalmon]

I tried the link last night and have just tested it now, it worked perfectly on both occasions and was very clear.

[victorclem]

Working fine with me too. Afraid I dont have the technical expertize to advise those who cannot access.

VC

[victorclem]

We have been doing our preparations today for the Dochart, and will be heading off there tomorrow and for the rest of this week. The issues on the Dochart are likely to be different to those we have been looking at so far, and although we will only be doing about 10% of the watercourses just now, it will give us a good feel for things going in to the winter.

If you are new to this forum or just needing a reminder, info on Western catchments Project can be found at:

www.scottishnativewoods.org.uk/index.asp?lm=60

VC

[victorclem]

Bit quiet on pro-boards today, no posts for 22 hours.

We have been out on the Fillan (flows in to Dochart), and already a few significant issues. The Fillan is totally different to the Lochay.

There are a lot of signs of mink on the Fillan, which are obviously bad news from a number of points of view. Despite this, we have found more water voles, at low level close to river, and being inside National Park, this will have positive implications for us in sourcing funding for riparian habitat works, and probably also mink control (is'nt everything interconnected!)

We have found himalayan balsam, a very invasive species which rapidly colonizes river banks, and is really bad news. TDSFB did a survey last year which suggested that it was not present west of Aberfeldy. We now know different.

A greater proportion of watercourses are flowing through farmland on the Dochart than on the Lochay, and therefore erosion/ siltation, fence quality etc are becoming more prominent.

Bit early to say too much yet, as we have only had one person out for a day and a bit, but I think the Dochart is definitely going to be productive on the "issues front".

Regards,

VC

[juststartedagain]

VC,

Interesting update - sounds like things getting interesting on various fronts....look forward to November!

Not surprising the TDSFB survey was pants more ammunition for the AGM !

[victorclem]

You think people might be wanting to get a few things of their chests at the AGM??

[murfey]

Can anyone let me know when/where the AGM of the TDSFB is ?
Also, is it open to the general public?

Thanks

Paul