Loch Lomond Fishery Trust: Project 81 Youth Work

Purpose of Grant

A community outreach programme involving education in fisheries conservation, angling and fish farming.

Project Description

This project aims to grow the provision and uptake of sea trout angling and conservation opportunities in the Gareloch area and leave a lasting legacy for the future. The project is a collaboration between: The Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust (LLFT); the Loch Lomond Angling Improvement Association (LLAIA; loch lomondangling.com) and Project81, a long-established youth project based in Garelochhead, Argyll & Bute (Project81.co.uk). The LLFT will administer and run the project, during the funding period and beyond.

The overarching objectives of the project are to:

(1) stimulate and nourish an interest in the outdoor pursuit of sea trout angling in young people in Helensburgh and Lomond, east Argyll & Bute;

(2) embed aquatic conservation in the minds of our target young people;

(3) showcase to our young people how the range of salmonid industries in Scotland work together to better our understanding of salmonid populations;

(4) leave a legacy of:

(a) improved riparian and instream habitat for sea trout on an important local sea trout burn which is evaluated and enhanced annually; and

(b) establish an angling and conservation club, managed by Centre81 and the LLFT which will deliver angling activities and the conservation legacy.

To achieve these objectives the LLFT will deliver the following actions:

For Objective (1).

Dr. Beevers from the LLFT is a volunteer director and senior youth volunteer for Project81 (since 2018). The project will use this link with Project81 to develop the focus on young people. The project will deliver a series of angling workshops and events where young people will learn the basics of marine sea trout angling from an accredited coach. The location will be the Gareloch and the sessions will be delivered by a licensed coach, LLAIA volunteers and LLFT staff.

For Objective (2).

The LLFT will use the McAuley burn in Garelochhead (which is suitably populated with sea trout and local to Project81) as the location to deliver practical fisheries conservation

initiatives for the young volunteers as follows: riparian habitat improvement (willow spiling and tree planting); population assessments using electrofishing; invertebrate monitoring; and litter removal.

For Objective (3).

The LLFT will organise visits to a nearby marine salmon farm where the young people will learn about industrial fish farming and how the farming sector and the conservation sector work together to benefit wild fish; farming, conservation and angling sectors will be represented on the visits. We envisage our current client MOWI (for whom we deliver electrofishing contract work) will facilitate this.

For Objective (4).

Dr. Beevers (LLFT) and the senior youth worker at Centre81 will organise a programme of ongoing volunteer led conservation works and angling events, led by young people from the youth project.

The McAuley burn is a neglected, ex-foliated and unstudied sea trout spawning burn. The proposed works will reverse this trend. The proposed willow weaving bank revetment will provide instant cover and physical habitat for trout and will mature into a living willow revetment which will provide overhead cover within 3 years and stabilise numerous eroding banks that have undergone knotweed eradication; the proposed tree planting will re-establish riparian trees which will provide shade and cover and the roots will stabilise the riverbanks. The Trust propose to monitor plant growth, willow weave habitat utilisation by fish and bank stabilisation using typical methods they employ in their other projects across the Lomond catchment.

The project will foster ownership of the local aquatic environment by the young people and the wider community on the Gareloch. This will immediately benefit the trout population in the burn and in addition, the project will benefit from amplified publicity and dissemination from events at the local high school (1000+ students) and through the membership of the local angling club (700+ members).

Budget

The project was awarded a grant of £12,381 from the fund.