Catchment restoration - ‘linking the lochs’

Photo: Atlantic Salmon Trust | Soval Estate

Atlantic58 and Redwing Ecology are delighted to be supporting on a new catchment scale restoration project that is being led by the Atlantic Salmon Trust in partnership with the Soval Estate.

The project is the first of its kind in the Outer Hebrides and the first stage of this work is to identify long-term riverine and wider habitat improvement across the Laxay catchment area 35,000 acres.

The catchment is important for Atlantic salmon, a species which has been in decline for several decades and is now endangered in Great Britain. The project will explore ways to build resilience into the catchment to protect against the impacts of climate change, as well as increasing biodiversity across both the instream habitat and wider catchment.

The project is supported by the Soval Estate which forms a large part of the Laxay catchment.  Further ways to involve local organisations and community groups will be explored as the project progresses.

Atlantic58 are collaborating with another ecological consultancy - Redwing Ecology - to support the first phase of the project, a baseline ecological report and broadscale opportunities for habitat enhancement, with recommendations for monitoring. 

We are delighted to be involved with this project and will provide further updates in the future.