The Inchewan Burn Project, Birnam

The River Tay is one of Scotland’s greatest assets. In order to guarantee continued healthy Atlantic salmon stocks it is crucial that spawning area habitat is iin optimal condition for juvenile fish to thrive in. Jock Monteith is conducting his own habitat restoration projects starting with Birnam’s Inchewan Burn, the first of many planned projects.

Jock first conceived the idea of restoring the Inchewan Burn in August 2004. The burn suffered from over-canopying from native species of trees and encroachment in two areas from commercial forestation.

Further to this, there were various blockages on the burn, with both man-made and natural obstacles. The biggest problem was the riverbed underneath the A9 motorway, which has 40 metres of broken gabion basket-type mattress that had been destroyed and repaired on numerous occasions since the '70s, due to the high-pressure movement of large boulders in the burn. A lack of sunlight negatively impacted on the entire ecology of the burn, and the impassable, unsightly broken wire jungle underneath the A9 roadbridge was the reason the Inchewan Burn had been cut off from migratory fish for over 30 years.

To raise funding for the project, Jock set up the Willie the Gillie School of Casting in March 2005. It ran on alternate Sundays throughout that year and raised £840 to pay survey costs. By this then Jock had forged good relationships at senior level in SEPA, who advised him to have the woodlands and other aspects of the burn professionally surveyed.

SEPA introduced Jock to the River Restoration Centre (RRC), the leading UK authority on such work. Jock also contacted Scottish Native Woods (SNW) and instructed them to conduct a survey on the riparian woodland of the burn.

The survey reports cost £1,200 in total. They were invaluable in moving the project forward and were sent to various bodies including SNH, SEPA, the Scottish Executive and the Forestry Commission.

As a result of the survey, in April 2006 the Scottish Executive sent a team of specialists to investigate the blockage underneath the A9. They decided to redo the A9 riverbed in a more environmentally sympathetic manner; the work is scheduled to commence in summer 2007.

The Inchewan Burn Project as it is taking shape was a focal point for an SNH / RRC workshop, 'Working With Rivers', held in September 2006 at the Birnam Institute. Angus Tree, the SNH Freshwater Adviser (Rivers) asked Jock to give a presentation on the project at the workshop.

All work on the burn is now scheduled for completion by December 2007. More importantly, much longer habitat restoration projects are now being considered utilising the same team of dedicated professionals connected to the Inchewan Burn Project.

Jock is now exploring ways of involving the educational services so that youngsters can learn about the riparian enviornment through an educational walk along the Inchewan Burn.