Galloway Fisheries Trust Meeting

It was great to catch up with the work of the Galloway Fisheries Trust at their recent open meeting held in Gatehouse of Fleet. Heather Trust Project Manager Patrick Laurie attended an afternoon of discussion and presentations looking at some of the Trust's work over the last twelve months.

Much of the afternoon was focussed on monitoring local populations of salmon, sparling and (unfortunately) american signal crayfish, but there are some big areas of crossover between the Galloway Fisheries Trust and the Heather Trust.

An increasing emphasis on water quality, flood prevention and riparian habitats all link back to healthy uplands, and it's useful for the Heather Trust to keep in touch with the work being carried out in these areas by fisheries at a catchment scale. During the afternoon, one of the GFT presentations specifically described peatland restoration projects in areas of commercial forestry, and another looked at mitigating the impact that industrial development for forestry and renewable energy can have on water quality and biodiversity. This is music to our ears at the Heather Trust, integrating a full range of interests and balancing them so that we can get the best out of our uplands.

Galloway Fisheries Trust are a small charity punching well above their weight, and it's easy to keep in touch with them given that they are also based in southwest Scotland. At the same time, GFT concerns overlap with wider issues across the UK, and it would be good to develop ties with similar local organisations up and down the country.

A New Director

This week sees a change of Director at The Heather Trust, as Anne Gray takes over the reins from outgoing Director, Simon Thorp.

Anne is from a farming family in Berwickshire and has worked in the rural land use sector for the last ten years with Scottish Land & Estates, latterly leading on their Land Use & Environment portfolio.  She has a first class honour degree in Environmental Science and has a particular interest in the emerging natural capital agenda.

Commenting on her new role Anne said: 

“I’m incredibly pleased to be taking up this role.  I was attracted to the Heather Trust because I instinctively felt we were a great match.  It is about integrated land management, so finding the right balance between living and working on the land and ensuring the natural world thrives.  This is something I’m very keen on. 

I’m taking over from Simon Thorp who has built the reputation of The Heather Trust over the last 16 years.  It is recognised throughout the UK for the role it plays in consensus building and in demonstrating good practice.  It sits in the space between a number of different land use interests, and uses objectivity and science to help broker a way forward.  I am very happy with that and I want to build on the excellent foundations Simon has created.  We are not saying goodbye just yet to Simon, he will for a time continue with Scotland’s Moorland Forum and will complete one or two other projects for the Trust that he has been an integral part of.” 

“This is a very uncertain time for the UK’s moorlands and uplands.  Michael Gove last week launched DEFRA’s consultation on the future of farming policy.  His proposals signal change, but he is listening to calls for the uplands to be given particular consideration.  His desire to see public money deliver for the environment may well be a good thing for the uplands since they have a large role to play in delivering things like natural flood management, carbon storage and improved biodiversity.  However, as yet we just don’t have enough detail to know whether this will be the case.  I intend for the Heather Trust to be fully involved in demonstrating the case for the UK’s uplands and moorlands not just to DEFRA but in all relevant arenas.”