Sunday, 29 November 2009
The river Lochay.....
Despite everything else being flooded, the Lochay looks pretty normal here.........up to 65% of the water is however abstracted......so the Lochay can look normal when the Dochart, for example, is flooded........or it can be overly full of water if the power station just happens to be discharging water at a particular time.......
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Boreland Falls on the Lochay
A Borland fish lift has been installed to allow salmon to bypass these falls, which are impassable under virtually all conditions, although it is known that a very small number of fish can make their way up in exceptionally high water. There have been reports of fresh water pearl mussels in the Lochay in the past, which are dependant on migratory fish to complete their life cycle. It is beleived that while the fish lift now allows more fish to ascend, it has in fact made natural passage more difficult/ almost impossible.
Fish pass on the middle River Lochay
This pass was upgraded by SSE as part of a LIFE salmon grant fund in 2006.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
The lower Lyon in autumn
You can expand any of these photos to full screen size simply by clicking on them.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Cute little critters....
We are currently gathering support for our idea to provide extra manpower in the western catchments area and that seems to be going well, and we are currently also trying to identify suitable funders. Protecting water voles and other riparian wildlife by eradicating mink would be an important part of that. The water vole distribution was one of the important outputs of our TWCP survey work.
This photo has been submitted by Katy Freeman, habitat Manager for FCS at Cowal & Trossachs Forest district in Aberfoyle. Katy recently captured some young water voles from within our area to help develop their water vole re-introduction programme within the LLTNPA area. Hopefully some more photos from that in due course....
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Regeneration Monitoring at CCC
Here are some photos of the Scots Pine regeneration at CCC on the banks of the Cononish on Monday. There is a swath to the west of the main wooded block that is doing well, but towards the west of the site, while many seedlings are evident, they are growing very slowly, some are getting browsed, and that area is very vulnerable, especially as the stocking of healthy mature trees is very low, typically about 1 per ha or less.
Scots Pine Regeneration at CCC
This area is to the west of the main forest block, SP regen fairly widespread, growing slowly, long way from becoming established.
Two of the better trees......
These two trees are obviously doing well, but are unusual in that they are growing so fast and straight.
In slow decline........
The tree in the foreground here, and another further down are obviously in decline, although the rate of decline of the trees here is not known. These two particular trees have not apparently changed that much from 2007, but a photographic record provides a better way of checking.
You can also see that there is much less regeneration on the west of the site.......
Boreland Forest, Loch Tay side
Boreland Forest on Loch tay side is managed by the Forestry Commission.
Sunday, 30 August 2009
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