Riverwoods: Catchment Restoration – providing cool, clean water for wild Atlantic salmon

Our wild Atlantic salmon are in crisis and we must act now.

To prevent their regional extinction in Scotland, we need to look beyond the riverbanks and restore whole ecosystems on a landscape scale.

We are supporting catchment-wide initiatives in the Scottish Highlands, empowering organisations to catalyse a network of ecological restoration projects. From the development of a new initiative with the Cromarty Firth Watershed Environmental Trust, to direct support for habitat creation projects, and the key themes of ‘cool, clean water’ explored at the recent Wild Salmon Connections conference, we’re pleased to share an update.

Catchment restoration can provide the ‘cool clean water’ that salmon need

Today, Scottish salmon are under threat. Without action across key salmon catchments, wild Atlantic salmon could become a distant memory. Catches in the Scottish Highlands reached an all time low in 2022, representing just 75% of the five-year average. During the mid-1980s, there were between eight and ten million salmon swimming around Scotland’s Atlantic coast; that number has now dropped to two to three million. During the extreme summer of 2018 – the warmest on record for Scotland – 70% of Scotland’s rivers experienced temperatures above the critical threshold for thermal stress in juvenile Atlantic salmon. And temperatures are going to rise: The UK Met Office predicts that summers like that of 2018 could occur every other year by 2050. 

Across our river systems, a movement driving catchment-scale restoration is underway. The Riverwoods: Evidence Review compiled by the Scottish Wildlife Trust demonstrated broad benefits to catchment function by restoring riparian woodlands. When paired with a whole-ecosystem approach – including the restoration of peatlands, wetlands, instream habitat improvements and evidence-based fisheries interventions – we can protect and restore our river systems. River managers, NGOs, proprietors and governments alike are now increasingly understanding that, by restoring the catchments and ecosystems that salmon are a part of, we can help to cool our waters under climate change, store more carbon in our landscapes, boost biodiversity, and provide the crucial habitats our salmon need. As these benefits accrue, they will underpin a healthy angling sector, enjoyed by locals and international visitors to rural Scotland.

The European Nature Trust is now committed to restoring freshwater ecosystems in the Scottish Highlands. Building on riparian restoration work conducted at Alladale Wilderness Reserve – where one million trees have been replanted along two Highland glens – we are now working to empower local Trusts, who are supporting the necessary capacity and building partnerships to help restore ecosystem function on key salmon catchments, while developing public outreach, communications and educational programmes.

This encompassing vision is the driving philosophy of our efforts to catalyse a network of ecological restoration projects, by empowering local organisations under our Riverwoods: Catchment Restoration banner.

Facilitating habitat creation in the Kyle of Sutherland

With support from the Swire Charitable Trust, TENT has enabled the Kyle of Sutherland Rivers Trust (KSRT) to undertake a multi-faceted restoration project in the upper tributaries of the river Shin. This includes installing ‘leaky dams’, creating wetlands that will mitigate flood events from increasingly intense precipitation, as well as developing new natural habitats to increase biodiversity. Alongside waterways, native trees are being planted, to intercept rainfall and produce shade, contributing to the provision of the cold, clean water that salmon and other aquatic species require.

A. Riverbanks to be planted with native woodland to cool the water; B. Wetland habitat to be restored; C, E. Examples of leaky dams; D. Aerial showing artificial drains to be blocked.

Alladale sits in the Kyle of Sutherland catchment, where we are supporting the Kyle of Sutherland Rivers Trust to catalyse a network of habitat creation projects. Get to know the catchment.

The Kyle catchment in the heart of the Scottish Highlands, are some of the most important rivers for salmon migration. Yet, they are some of the most vulnerable to thermal stress. The Kyle of Sutherland is the natural tidal estuary for the Rivers Carron, Oykel, Cassley, Shin and Evelix with their many tributaries, burns and freshwater lochs. Together they drain 163,647 hectares of land and amount to some 46 miles of tidal zone, 70 miles of principal rivers, 400 miles of tributaries and 61 named lochs and lochans. Native riparian woodland currently covers, on average,  7% of Kyle of Sutherland’s rivers, with most headwater rivers featuring less than 5% cover. Today, there are 86 full time job roles on the Kyle rivers related to salmon.

Towards a network of Highland tree nurseries

Building on the success of the TENT-funded Ardgay nursery, which is now producing tens of thousands of young trees per year for Riverwoods planting projects, we are aiming to catalyse the creation of a network of tree nurseries to provide much-needed saplings of local provenance for woodland creation projects. We aim to empower organisations at the heart of catchment-wide initiatives to build this much needed network of locally-run nurseries to help Scotland meet its biodiversity targets. Such nurseries would have a key role in developing positive relationships between communities and regional nature restoration efforts.

Gathering aquaculture data for informed action

Through the Highlands and Islands Environment Foundation, TENT is supporting two Scottish charities to analyse and evaluate the overall economic and environmental impacts of a wide-spread industry that operates in Scotland. The findings will be shared to provide objective insights to inform government policy decisions and to guide political manifestos ahead of the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2026.

TENT at Wild Salmon Connections conference

The Missing Salmon Alliance recently brought together representatives from all regions of the northern hemisphere, united by a common goal: to save wild salmon from extinction. First-nation people spoke alongside government ministers, scientists, artists and film-makers, land and river managers, aquaculture innovators, and conservationists.

“Wild salmon are in crisis, but there is hope. Wild Salmon Connections told the story of wild salmon and nature to inspire urgent action; enable positive solutions to promote wild salmon recovery; and accelerate nature restoration for salmon, people and the planet.”

Key themes of the conference featured a focus on environmental storytelling to raise awareness of the keystone role that salmon play in ecosystems and how we can overcome the crisis; demonstrating that success is possible with co-ordinated interventions in marine and freshwater ecosystems; and that natural capital financing presents an unprecedented opportunity to mobilise critical financing at-scale to provide the cold, clean water that salmon need.