Tales of the (ruined) river bank
June 2006
BIG FISH: John Sheard of Keith flicked a small spinning spoon into the Isla, not yet threatened by windfarms, and brought out a 10lb 2oz brown trout.
by Alastair Robertson
Ask a bespoke estate agent how he – seldom she – would rate the River Deveron and the answer, invariably, is: “ Very nice; top of the second division.”
The Deveron has none of the glamour of the big four salmon rivers, the Dee, Tweed, Tay and Spey. It is not fashionable. The last duke to own a chunk of the Deveron was Richmond and Gordon in the 1920s. Royalty kept to Deeside.
The Scottish law lords have always been keen on the Deveron and used to carouse at the Forbes Arms in Rothiemay. But they are hardly celebs.
Neither is it particularly sought after even though it produced, admittedly in 1921, the 61lb British record for a rod-and-fly caught salmon. It also boasts the highest salmon catch after the Big Four.
To be little known in an era of celebrity and conspicuous wealth may be considered something of a handicap. But to many beyond its hinterland and meandering ways, the Deveron’s anonymity is one of its greatest assets.
Like the land and towns through which it flows and the people it has served down the centuries, the Deveron is an unassuming river, easy-going but capable of surprises.
It is also, surprisingly perhaps for a salmon river, hugely egalitarian. Almost 30 miles of the system that includes the Isla and the Bogie is owned or managed by local angling associations, notably Huntly with 22 miles. Most beats, even the best, are available through local tackle shops and agents. To fish a salmon river and even catch a salmon for a tenner is a reasonable enough prospect.
The Deveron, over its 60-mile course from the Cabrach in Moray through Banffshire and Aberdeenshire, through Huntly and Turriff to the sea at Banff and Macduff, falls into the category of ‘hidden gem’.
The salmon catches are on the increase (though falling sea trout numbers are still a conundrum everywhere), once unproductive tributaries are being opened up, educational programmes are teaching school children the importance of the river, not only evironmentally, but economically. New websites are making little-known stretches available to a wider angling public.
But all this could be wiped out, or at the very least set back for decades, if the Scottish Executive gives the go-ahead to a new wind farm in the Forestry Commission’s Clashindarroch Forest on the ridge between the Deveron and the Bogie, south of Huntly.
The wind farm by engineering conglomorate AMEC could earn the cash-strapped commission at least £7 million in turbine ground rents. For this the commission is prepared to fell 1,000,000 growing trees. Ironically, trees fix carbon, the very element said to cause global warming and the reason the Scottish Executive says we must build wind farms – to reduce carbon emissions.
Most complaints about wind farms are that they ruin the landscape. But little attention has been paid to their effect on river systems, except possibly on the Spey where the Norwegian developer of the Paul’s Hill wind farm, along with the Scottish Executive, have been reported to Europe for endangering the river ecology.
In Ireland wind farm construction so destabalised a peat hillside that 70 acres of bog slid downhill and wiped out a river system to become the world’s first recorded man-made ‘bogalaunch’. That was three just years ago.
The similarities between the two sites, Derrybrien in Galway and the Clashindarroch Forest are chilling, according to research carried out for the Deveron District Salmon Board, the statutory body set up by Parliament to regulate and protect the river system.
Research presented at last month’s public inquiry showed that it is not simply the prospect of a ‘bogalaunch’ that worries both the board and the Deveron Bogie and Isla Charitable Trust, set up five years ago to fund and carry out environmental improvement.
Construction work, particularly for roads, will require major drainage works. Surface water will drain straight off the hill into the Bogie instead of soaking into the peat and rock to be gradually released into the river system.
Flash floods and sudden surges through man-made drains and ditches will, it is feared, sweep away spawning beds and juvenile fish in shallow burns, particularly in the critical autumn and early spring.
Ironically, this is exactly what happened between the 1930s and 1960s with the re- afforestation of much of Scotland and Clashindarroch in particular. Huge drainage ditches for the trees were allowed to run straight into the Bogie, silting it up and creating a concrete-hard bottom.
The Bogie, once known for its sea trout (there was a fishing hotel at Gartly) became virtually sterile, not helped by the acidification of the waters from the trees.
Fast run-off from forestry drainage and land drains is one reason why the Deveron as a whole rises and falls so rapidly, almost like a Highland spate river. Seventy years ago fluctuations in water levels were far more gradual as the land slowly released the winter snows and rains.
The tragedy for the Bogie in particular is that work by the Deveron Trust has just begun to reverse the damage of the last century. Removing obstructions to allow salmon and sea trout upstream to spawn, and clearing burns and banks broken down by livestock, have seen a remarkable improvement in the Bogie, and consequently the health of the whole system.
In 1991 surveys showed nine out of 11 sites held no salmon or trout. But by 2005, and thanks largely to environmental work by the trust, stocks of fish of varying ages were found in 15 out of 18 locations. Two of the sites held the highest numbers found anywhere in the Deveron system or, indeed, in any similar rivers in Scotland. Whether the Bogie is allowed to return to full health – and with it the rest of the river – depends very much on the recommendation from the public inquiry reporter to the Scottish Executive.
At least the river’s other tributary, the Isla, is not threatened with wind farms. Yet. The future for Isla salmon and sea trout is as bright as it has ever been over the last 100 years.
Distillery weirs have effectively prevented salmon or sea trout migrating upstream beyond Keith except in very high water. But with the help of Pernod Ricard, the owners of Chivas Brothers that own Strathisla Distillery, fish passes have been installed on the weirs, effectively opening up another 22 miles of potential spawning grounds.
Just how good the Isla can be was demonstrated last year when John Sheard flicked a small spinning spoon into the river below the town and caught a 10lb brown trout.
At Drummuir the trust has built a salmon hatchery as a back-up against natural disasters – if a wind farm can be called a natural disaster – wiping out a year’s worth of young fish.
The trust has been out and about telling children in primary schools about the river and explaining the life cycle of the salmon.
At Turriff the Angling Association has taken the view that the future lies with young anglers and introduced them to fishing on burns with worms. Interest has grown rapidly.
But while the river may be an important environmental rescource – it is home to one of the last surviving colonies of water voles in Scotland – its economic importance cannot be underestimated. The Spey Board calculated that each fish caught generates £1,700 for the local economy.
On that basis an annual Deveron catch of say 3,000 fish would generate £5million a year or £125million over 25 years.
The wind farm will employ virtually no-one in its life time and, by the developers’ own admission, might generate £2million over the same period.
More to the point, is it worth cutting down one million trees, releasing huge amounts of carbon by excavating the blanket bog for turbine bases and ruining a river to save us from global warming ?
Where to fish?
ALASTAIR ROBERTSON is a freelance journalist who works for national newspapers and magazines. He lives near Huntly with his wife, two sons and a daughter, and keeps two sheep as unpaid lawnmowers.
This is an article from the June 2006 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, see our subscription details.
The answer to Alastair Robertson is YES! If he thinks doing nothing is the answer to climate change then he is very much mistaken. Do nothing, and there wont be any fish left in any Scottish river, what’s he going to do then? Cry over split milk? Stop burying your head in the sand and look at the real evidence. Over 45 windfarm developments in Scotland are operating – not one has caused a landslide or significantly effected river systems. This ill-informed piece is nothing more than a rose-tint-spectacled view of rural Scotland. He harks back to the landed gentry and their fishing hobbies – it says it all!
— Grant Thoms 2 June 2006 #