Our Rivers project is a partnership between Sustaining Dunbar and Forth Rivers Trust. The first, year-long phase, funded by a grant from the Neighbourhood Ecosystem Restoration fund with match funding from the East Lammermuir Community Benefit Fund is just finishing and the second phase is just beginning. In this second phase we are aiming to create a portfolio of detailed, ‘shovel-ready’ project plans for restoration projects, focussing initially on the Spott Burn and Dry Burn catchments.
Over the past year we have run a number of events intended to help enliven people’s connection to our local watercourses -including a programme of activities with Innerwick and Stenton Primary Schools, ‘wild river walks’ and various creative workshops culminating in the FLOW programme which will lead up up to an exhibition in the John Muir’s Birthplace starting in July. In parallel with this we have collated a huge amount of data about our local river catchments and have completed initial, on-the-ground surveys of the four main East Lammermuir coastal burns and their tributaries. These surveys have highlighted some of the key problems and pressures facing these coastal burns include historic bank modification/realignment, poor riparian buffer zones, track erosion, diffuse pollution, non-native invasive species, culverts and redundant weirs that create barriers to fish migration etc.. Every challenge is also an opportunity and literally hundreds of potential opportunities for positive interventions have been marked as points on a map.
These opportunities range from measures to reconnect burns to their flood plains and encourage natural meandering and creation of new wetlands through to riparian tree planting, removal of barriers to fish migration, creation of buffer woodlands and margins as well as creation of wildlife corridors across the landscape to connect currently isolated and fragmented habitats.
We are very excited to have now appointed a part-time, paid staff member, Jenny Gries, as our Catchment Restoration Development Officer. Her initial focus will be on the Spott and Dry Burn catchments, meeting with landowners to discuss their aspirations and challenges and find opportunities for collaboration. Once we have some detailed and fundable project proposals we hope to be able to move quickly to start delivery of some of these initial projects whilst continually developing further project ideas and proposals and expanding this more detailed planning work across the whole of the East Lammermuir area.
We are continuing to work closely with East Lammermuir Community Council, particularly to support delivery of the biodiversity enhancement aspirations outlined in their Local Place Plan, and with East Lothian Climate Hub’s hedgerow restoration project. Volunteers are also continuing the River Guardians project, with monthly Riverfly monitoring and (now also, Freshwater Watch) chemical water quality testing happening on the Oldhamstocks Burn (thanks for the Oldhamstocks for Nature group) as well as on the Biel Water. We hope to expand this citizen science project to other local burns as more volunteers join the group. If interested, please get in touch: riverfly@sustainingdunbar.org