by Stuart Brabbs | Jul 25, 2017 | Electrofishing
The rain held off last night and we decided to head to the top of the River Ayr and work downstream as we undertook the timed surveys of the Ayr today. Water levels were still dropping so we figured starting at the top of the catchment would work best. Results at the...
by Stuart Brabbs | Jul 20, 2017 | Conservation, General
With our salmon tracking site approved by MSS, we decided to place the mooring and receiver in Ayr harbour today. Not in the useable harbour but upstream of any boat traffic beside the old railway bridge pillars. Plan A was a good one (so we thought). Float the...
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...