by Struan Candlish | Jul 18, 2017 | General
Today saw us begin our timed electrofishing for the District Salmon Fishery Boards. With water levels still a little on the high side on the Ayr system we opted to begin on the Doon. With the dust brushed of the gear we headed to the bottom of the Doon on an absolute...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jul 15, 2017 | General
We fenced this section of the burn a couple of years ago and used green engineering to stabilise what was very rapid and severe erosion. This was driven by livestock accessing the burn and margins and led to instability and loss of tonnes of soil from the field. Our...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jul 14, 2017 | Conservation
Our fencer, Jim Thompson has now completed two contracts for us and the Doon Board this year. The Macmanniston stretch on the main river has been completed and we will agree a final measure on this next week and post some photos here. The second stretch was on the...
by gmacdermid | Jul 14, 2017 | General
ART secured limited funding from Tescos ‘Bags Of Help’ fund to help control Invasive Non Native Plant Species (INNPS) on the Stinchar and Girvan catchments this year. This funding will allow us to control Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed on both...
by Struan Candlish | Jul 13, 2017 | Conservation, General
Great news for the Irvine catchment ART has now secured adequate funding to improve two barriers in the upper catchment. We managed to secure the necessary funding despite many rejections. Our thanks to East Ayrshire Renewable Energy Fund, Nineveh Trust, Darvel...
by Muir Glendinning | Jul 13, 2017 | General
On Tuesday we were at Loch Doon to carry out a clean of the Vaki fish counter. Cleaning the Vaki ensures the scanning plates which produce the silhouettes and counts the number fish are not obscured with algae which can grow on the plate surface or debris such as...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jul 13, 2017 | Conservation, General
Looking at rivers and burns from above can be revealing and help us to understand why certain problems occur. This video of the middle Girvan illustrates some but not all the problems we see. It was shot with our drone while looking for problems that we can rectify...
by Struan Candlish | Jul 12, 2017 | General
The Trust is looking to hold a balsam bash on the Dyrock in the next couple of weeks. Currently balsam on the Dyrock is at a low level with occasional larger stands present. With the help of a few volunteers we should be able to clear the burn of this plant. Doing so...