Black Rock Waterfall improvements

After a few delays, work has finally commenced to improve fish passage at the Black Rocks Waterfall on the Kilmarnock Water. Work was supposed to start last year but was delayed due to planning hold-ups followed by bad weather. ART engaged IH Borland of Kilmarnock to...

Ponesk Fish Rescue (updated)

To enable Scottish Coal to extract substantial coal reserves from below the course of the Ponesk Burn in the upper River Ayr catchment, ART were contracted to rescue as many fish as possible from the burn before the water was diverted. On Tuesday and Wednesday this...

Water Voles doing well

Around 3 weeks have passed since we stocked water voles into Darley and Slaphouse Burns and so far they seem to be doing well. Despite some terrible weather and widely fluctuating water levels many voles seem to have survived the high mortality period that usually...

Japanese Knotweed Control

It is approaching peak time for Japanese Knotweed control. When the plant is in flower it is in the process of storing energy in the rhizome root system for overwintering. If sprayed at this time, the chemical is translocated straight to the root and has a much...

Spate conditions: low oxygen?

I had a trip to Loch Doon this afternoon to download the fish counter. I like to check the pH etc in the compensation flow from the loch so I made sure the multimeter was in the van. The pH reading below the dam, at the very top of the river, was 6.65 (mildly acidic)....

Ayrshire rivers conductivity

Ayrshire is a very diverse area in terms of human population density, landuse, geology etc. This is reflected in the characteristics of its rivers. Whilst the water in the Ayr may look similar to that flowing down the Stinchar measurements of parameters such as...

Water Vole Video Clip

I’ve uploaded a video clip of the water vole stocking to my You Tube account. URsTV also covered the release and have posted a couple of related clips on their web site...

Himalayan invasion

Over the last few years the Rumbling Burn (flows under the A78 to the south of Troon) has become over-run by Himalayan Balsam. This is a small coastal burn and the problem seems to be limited to downstream of the A78, although we haven’t yet checked upstream to...