With the tree planting season about over until next winter, we have a couple of pressing jobs that must be completed this week. Hopefully the forecast rain at the weekend will help them establish quickly as they burst into life but we will water them anyway as a safeguard.
Much of the bank on this side of the river is sheer and eroding which leads to the siltation of the river and the fouling of spawning beds which are critical to the production from the upper river. Anything that can be done here to slow or prevent this erosion has got to help.
We completed approximately 100m of green engineering yesterday – installation is fairly quick with the right tools and know how but the preparation is rather slower. Sourcing materials and preparing bundles and stakes is slow and laborious but having the right materials is crucial to the success of any project/
Today was mainly all about green engineering at Nether Wellwood on the upper Ayr but we did plant a few trees to support that work. Hopefully the brash bundles we installed which consisted mainly of locally harvested willow will root into the banks and form a living structure. The stakes hold everything in place and they should also root and quickly tie everything in place.
In the foreground of this shot is a little willow that went in to the river bank as a six inch cutting a few years back – now look at it! All these little efforts add up and make a difference and if everyone plugged a few willow cuttings into an eroding bank when they were out what a difference could be made!
It’ll be very interesting to replicate this photo in 5 months and then in 5 years – this should look very different in a few years time.
The bank we worked suffers from accelerated erosion mainly caused by livestock grazing and while it would be beneficial to fence this to exclude the sheep, there’s no budget for that at the moment. Never the less, as this area is important for fish spawning, we were keen to do whatever we could to reduce the nutrient and silt inputs.
It’s a dogs life and Harley loves being on a river bank!
Plenty of sticks for Harley to choose from – these are crucial to the success of the project
We had Billy, a local volunteer with us helping today and his assistance was greatly appreciated. Kieron who volunteers every Tuesday also helped with collecting the willow and preparation over the last few weeks.
Ian and Billy use the Portech to drive in another willow stake
While we were able to rapidly install this green engineering, there were quite a few days work in preparation between the harvesting, bundling and delivery, but thankfully we managed to complete it today.
Our thanks to RSPB for allowing us to perform this work on their land and the River Ayr District Salmon Fishery Board for providing the necessary funding.
