In this newsletter:
Brown Trout Season Around The Corner - Get Your Permit!
River Eden Sustainability Partnership - Funding Success!
Riverfly - training available
Invasive Species and Habitat surveys - training available
Landowner Meeting
River Eden Day
Brown Trout Season Just Around the corner!
The brown trout season opens in less than a week’s time on 15th March. Hopefully as things warm up a bit, the bugs will get more lively and a few hatches will bring out a few eager brownies to a well presented flea! The beauty in this photo was caught last year by member Alan Greig. While catches reported were down last year, no-one could deny that the fish that were caught were all in top condition.
So if you haven’t got your permit yet, remember that they are available from all the usual outlets or from the Secretary by online BACS payment. All the details you need are on our permits page.
Brown trout caught by Alan Greig - beautifully marked and in great condition.
River Eden Sustainability Partnership (RESP)
Funding Success for RESP!
RESP has been awarded funding by Naturescot from the Nature Restoration Fund. The funds will be used to carry out surveys of the whole Eden and Motray catchments and tributaries - nearly 190km of water course. They will create maps of landownership, invasive plant species and habitat improvement opportunities. Over the course of the surveys, discussions will take place with landowners about how the river habitat might be improved. This will hopefully lead to a catchment scale project to make the improvements but this will depend on further funding. Along with the other main partners, Sustainable Cupar and Fife Coast and Countryside Trust, The Association is playing an important part in this work, making sure that anglers’ voices are heard in the discussion about how to improve the river. As well as the survey work, we are looking for support from volunteers to help support some of the RESP initiatives. This includes Riverfly, an invertebrate monitoring project, water quality monitoring, tree planting and control of invasive species. Let us know if you would like to be involved by clicking on the button below.
Riverfly
The Riverfly programme is a nationwide initiative managed by Buglife Scotland. As part of this, volunteers take monthly kick-samples of invertebrates at selected sites on the river between April and October and then upload the results to the national Riverfly database. To become a Riverfly volunteer involves 2x 3 hour sessions, one online and one practical session on the river. The training is free and all equipment is provided.
We are very keen to get more EAA members involved. New online training sessions are available on 11th March, 10am - 1pm or 13th March 6-9pm with a practical session on the river on 21st April. Drop us a message if you would like to take part!
TWO MORE DATES ADDED: 25th March 10-1 OR 26th March 6-9pm
If interested you can contact Rebecca Lewis the organiser directly - rebecca.lewis@buglife.org.uk OR use the contact button below to send a message.
Invasive Species and Habitat Surveys
RESP is now in the process of contracting surveyors to carry out the work. There will be more information about this soon.
In the meantime, we are working to create a bank of volunteers who will help with invasive plant species control. Again we are keen to get EAA members involved and so we are offering free herbicide training with all equipment provided. This could provide you with valuable qualifications in PA1/ PA6. In return, all we ask is a contribution to INNS management on the river. We are being advised on this by the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative (SISI) to develop a proper catchment-wide strategy with this where we work closely with landowners and work our way downstream from source to sea. It is going to take years to make the difference needed but the more people that get involved, the better.
Contact us if you are interested.
RESP Landowner Event
RESP’s first event was the landowner afternoon on Monday 12th Feb. About 120 people came. The big turn out was largely due to the recent floods. The landowners welcomed the chance to make their views clear to SEPA, Scottish Water and Fife Council’s lead on flooding. There has been a lot of positive feedback about the importance of taking a catchment wide approach to meet the needs everyone who lives, works and plays in the river catchment. There were some points of disagreement regarding how best to deal with the excessive amounts of silt in the river with many landowners in favour of cleaning out and maintaining the channels while SEPA cautioned against this as a long-term solution.
river eden day 2nd March, Cupar
EAA stall on River Eden Day at the Old Parish Centre
Gerry Farrell fly tying at River Eden Day on 2nd March
The River Eden Sustainability Partnership (RESP) put on a day of stalls, talks, films, music and kids activities at the Old Parish Centre on Saturday 2nd March. The Association had a stall with permits on sale, a display of tackle, a fly tying demo (thanks Gerry Farrell - brother of EAA Secretary, Michael) and a range of information about fishing on the river. There was second hand tackle available for free (if you completed the quiz) and for a donation if not and a sign up sheet for volunteers. A huge thank you to committee and members who supported the stall on the day, especially Alan Miller, Billy Collins and George Houston. Our Honorary President, Bill Wardlaw came along and brought old historic maps of the river at Cupar which drew great interest from the public. In the afternoon there was an excellent talk about the work of the Tweed Forum by Professor Chris Spray on natural flood management on Eddleston Water which has been very successful in flood attenuation and habitat improvement. Click the button below to view his talk: