TENT partners with Levy’s new ‘Living System Fund’, developed with RegenFutureCo, to support river catchment restoration in Scotland

About Riverwoods: Catchment Restoration

Our new partnership with Levy and RegenFutureCo will create new woodland in the Scottish Highlands as part of a larger catchment-scale project, while enabling local children to understand their local natural heritage and participate in its restoration.

Under climate change, Scotland is facing the very real possibility of a local extinction of Atlantic salmon. Catches in the Scottish Highlands have reached an all time low. Part of the problem is that there are very few trees on Scotland’s riverbanks to shade the water. In fact, Scotland has lost 97% of its native woodland. Many river catchments that would have once been covered with rich woodlands of pine, willow, downy birch and alder have been stripped, leaving the riverbanks bare and exposed. Without the cooling shade that trees provide on riverbanks, these hugely important river catchments are experiencing thermal stress.

By restoring whole river catchments, we can protect salmon, store carbon, boost biodiversity, and benefit local communities.  

Restoring woodland across river systems has been proven to keep water courses cool during hot summers, boost freshwater biodiversity and benefit salmon survival. Restoring woodlands on the rivers’ edge, critically, will improve important nursery grounds for young salmon; the tree cover will shade the water, cooling the temperature to improve the numbers of salmon surviving into adulthood; while the restoration of the riverbanks will help to restore natural water flows, providing sorely needed habitat and resources for invertebrates, birds and mammals. The trees will increase the input of nutrients into the river system, increasing food availability for young salmon.

Together, Levy’s support will reinstate native woodland on the River Carron catchment

The project, Riverwoods: Catchment Restoration is active across two main catchment areas: the Kyle of Sutherland and the Cromarty Firth Watershed. Together, these two highly important river catchments span 3,600 square kilometers in the Scottish Highlands.  

Taking inspiration from Alladale Wilderness Reserve – where more than one million native trees have been replanted to date – we will be planting native trees on the rivers Carron and Oykel. In partnership between TENT, Levy, RegenFutureCo and the Kyle of Sutherland Rivers Trust, we will plant a total of 76,500 native trees on the Dounie and Thurnaig Estates. These two projects form part of the larger Kyle Riverwoods project, an initiative supported by TENT’s Riverwoods: Catchment Restoration umbrella initiative. This ambitious catchment-scale initiative will see a network of native woodland projects establish over the years; projects for 2026 include the Dounie Burn in partnership with Levy and RegenFutureCo, new woodland creation at Alladale, the Oykel and Tirry systems, ancient woodland regeneration at East Rhiddorroch estate, and many more. 

These native trees Levy and RegenFutureCo are enabling TENT and partners to plant will enrich the biodiversity of the Carron and Oykel rivers, supporting both terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity. As the trees grow, their shade will help keep the rivers cool, providing hydrological benefits to the larger Carron and Oykel river systems – as key salmon rivers. The trees will provide a food source for birds and insects, and, as the trees grow, they will help lock in carbon from the atmosphere. Over the decades, the roots of these trees will help to stabilise the riverbanks, reducing erosion and improving the nutrient balance across the surrounding landscape. 

By giving children the chance to see nature restoration in action, Levy is helping to build the next generation of environmental stewards

On top of supporting woodland creation in the Highlands, we’re also helping young people to meaningful connect with nature restoration, by supporting the Alladale Wilderness Experience. This professionally designed and delivered environmental education programme is set at the UK’s most remote rewilding project in the UK. Over six weeks, Alladale will open to more than 150 schoolchildren from areas identified by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. They will learn from the Reserve’s ecologists about the past, present and future of Scotland’s ecosystems – seeing first hand the scale of restoration achieved at Alladale. Children will learn how TENT and local partners are now seeking to expand this restoration work by delivering restoration projects in the surrounding river catchments through Riverwoods: Catchment Restoration.