Completion of River South Esk Restoration Project
A project to Restore the River South Esk has now been completed. And while skies, on average, have been fairer recently, a great deal of the work took place during, and despite, the wettest start to a year in Angus on record.
While many people sought refuge indoors, the River South Esk Catchment Partnership were implementing the final physical interventions of their Nature Restoration Funded environmental vision.
The project has now delivered
- Re-meandering 244m of the March Burn in the upper River South Esk catchment at Glen Clova.
- Creation of new wetland habitat systems across 25 hectares and three sites
- 8.7 hectares of riparian woodland along 17.5km of upland watercourse
- Creation of 6.5 hectares of native treeline woodland
- 155 hectares of native woodland via natural regeneration
- Semi-natural grass and heathland habitat restoration
The fact that waterproofs and no shortage of resilience were required to complete the project in sometimes extreme weather, offered a literal reminder of our changing climate and the impacts it will have on our communities and land managers.
Roger Owen, Chair of the RSECP said:
“Our rivers are enormously important ecological systems which have often been degraded by the pressures we have placed on them in the past, so the South Esk Catchment Partnership places a big priority on restoring this iconic river.
“This most recent restoration project is of tremendous significance as it has brought into play multiple ways to restore the river and its catchment for the benefit of wildlife and the people that work, live, and visit there.
“Our restoration activities will over time restore nature, slow the flow of water downstream, reduce the pressure on salmon, ensure clean water and provide a wonderful amenity for communities. We are also keen to encourage citizen scientists to assist in monitoring river health.
“I do applaud the sheer persistence of all those hardy souls that completed the restoration activities in such dreadful weather. I am very proud of the way in which our Partnership of landowners, farmers, community interests, the local authority, agencies and non-governmental organisations continue to work together to carry out restoration of the South Esk.”
RSECP’s overall plan restores the river and its habitats in numerous ways, through riverside tree planting, wetland creation and protecting the hill and mountain environments to nature’s benefit. It will simultaneously strengthen the area’s resilience to environmental challenges set by the changing climate.
In 2024, the project, which is aimed at restoring habitats in the River South Esk catchment, received the backing of more than £1.4m from the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot.
RSECP is a broad and cross sector collective delivering project work since 2010. Core partners and landowners are working together to deliver the RSECP’s largest project to date of which wetland creation on a scale never seen before in Angus forms one of its key elements.
Partners delivering the Nature Restoration Fund project are Forestry and Land Scotland; Esk Rivers and Fisheries Trust; RSPB Scotland; Cairngorms National Park Authority; Angus Council; and landowners Rottal Estate and Clova Estates.
In addition, cbec eco engineering and wetlands specialist 35% were employed at the design and construction supervision phases, while McGowan Environmental Ltd and JML Contracts Ltd carried out on-site construction.
The project could not have been delivered without the continued contribution of landowners at Rottal Estate and Clova Estate. It is a successful model of public, private and third sector landscape scale restoration.
The partnership project provides new opportunities for communities to engage with nature, participate in its restoration and enjoy biodiversity in the Angus foothills and easternmost parts of the Cairngorms National Park.
At March Burn, removing flood embankments has seen it reconnected to the floodplain, supporting flood and drought resilience and reducing pressure on the river during spate events. Realignment of the river channel has increased the length of the burn and will improve the physical habitat for salmonid fish and invertebrate species.
A network of well-connected wetlands, a feature missing in the upland areas of Angus have been created to restore the habitat, missing from the Glen Clova floodplain for centuries. The wetlands were purposefully designed in areas likely to benefit Glen Clova’s healthy breeding wading bird population, new habitat for wintering wildfowl and will benefit native amphibians, invertebrates, and fish populations.
Native woodland creation was identified as a priority project element, benefiting climate change resilience, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. The removal of invasive non-native conifer regeneration from semi-natural grass and heathland habitats also took place. This will support biodiversity in areas of high-quality montane heath, alpine grassland and tall-herb communities. It will also improve access for targeted deer management by reducing negative browsing pressure impacts.
Dee Ward, landowner at Rottal Estate said:
“We are delighted to have been part of this project to deliver new areas of wetland and natural flood management which is key to the whole catchment. We are already seeing results in terms of water being held on the ground and increased wader numbers and breeding success.
“The incessant rain in January and February meant we couldn’t fully complete the final part of the project, but we hope to get funding to come back to this at a later stage. It is part of our wider goals at Rottal estate to deliver a balanced biodiverse landscape and work with partners to deliver natural flood management and water quality improvements that will benefit the whole catchment community.
“We have completed a number of significant projects now with partners like the River South Esk Catchment Partnership, RSPB Scotland, Esk Rivers Trust and Forestry & land Scotland. We hope to do more as we believe that working together with shared goals will deliver better results, at scale and faster than working in isolation.”