Salmon Scotland expands Wild Fisheries Fund for conservation

Salmon Scotland has announced an expansion of its Wild Fisheries Fund, with salmon farmers committing an additional £460,000 over the next two years. This brings the total investment in the initiative to £1.96 million.

This year, nearly £230,000 will be distributed among nine conservation projects across Scotland, including regions such as Ayrshire, Galloway, Argyll, Lochaber, Loch Lomond, and the Western Isles. The funded initiatives focus on riverbank restoration, tree planting, improving spawning grounds, and implementing new technologies to track salmon and sea trout survival.

Specific projects include restoring 400 meters of eroded riverbank on the upper River Ayr, installing livestock fencing, and planting native trees. In Lewis, the Stornoway Angling Association will receive £18,600 for work on the River Creed, which involves cleaning spawning gravels and using microchip tag readers to monitor fish. In Galloway, funding will support the restoration of River Bladnoch tributaries by returning straightened sections of burns to natural courses and planting 1,000 broadleaf trees.

The fund was established by salmon farming companies to combat declining wild fish populations, which have been pressured by habitat loss, rising temperatures, and migration obstacles.