
The Upper River Ayr today as the river burst its banks and flooded onto the fields.
Well as expected, when it started raining after the long period of drought this summer and autumn, it hasn’t stopped and the last 2 days have been the wettest for some time. October is the wettest month this year so far and it still has a few days left.
Today we dropped off trailer loads of willow and birch brash ahead of a project we hope to soon deliver near Wellwood on the Ayr. As with several other projects we have lined up on other rivers, river bank instability is damaging to both water quality and spawning habitat and by addressing this, we hope to improve fish habitat, fish stocks and egg survival. We use a combination of green engineering techniques to stabilise eroding areas and hopefully in time, these areas offer better habitat and cover for fish.

A hanging fence that needs replaced. Trees will be planted inside the new buffers and the bank reinforced with brash and other green engineering techniques.

The rain can’t stop us and we hauled several trailer loads of willow and birch brash to a storage area ahead of our work commencing

More brash to deliver when we find time
We announced this work at last night’s Ayr Board meeting and I was rather surprised by the lack of enthusiasm from some DSFB members. I can’t think of much else that a Board could be more enthusiastic about than restoring habitat and improving water quality but we all have different expectations and priorities. None the less, we will deliver our project confident we are making a difference for fish, habitat and landowners grateful for our assistance. In turn these benefits should help improve stocks in the river and in turn angling for years to come.