How is your local river looking? 🐟 Spotted any wildlife or pollution? ☀️ Low water level after the dry summer? 💧 What colour is the water? How fast is it flowing? Record all this (and more) in the free Big River Watch app between the 19th and 25th of September. 👉 theriverstrust.org/take-action/...

Our latest newsletter is out! Catch up with the newest updates from a busy 2025 summer... see the latest edition of our newsletter at tinyurl.com/FRTSummerNew...

The Leven Catchment Collective has launched!🌾 A new platform to support locally led action at the crossroads of healthy ecosystems, community wellbeing and resilient businesses.

On Tuesday last week FRT & LENs Co co-hosted an event to welcome visitors from an international climate delegation as they tour Scotland and prepare for the upcoming COP 30. At the event we showcased the Leven LENs project and took a closer look at the place-specific context of this LENs region...

📢 Don’t miss tomorrow’s free webinar on the new Community Springboard – a programme supporting Leven Catchment groups with nature restoration, wellbeing & community connection. 📅 Tue 27 Aug, 6–7PM 📍 Online – register: www.tickettailor.com/events/forth...

Willow spilling, 5 months on ⏩ Back in March, we worked with @forthriverstrust.bsky.social to stabilise sections of the White Burn that runs through #Blaeberry Wood 🌊 Look at the growth already. Job well done - the wonders of willow! 🍃

🌱 Calling land managers, farmers & land-based businesses in the Lothian Esk Catchment! Farmer & land manager meet up 🗓️ Wed 3rd Sept 📍 Penicuik Town Hall ⏰ 7–8:30pm Help shape a route map for a more climate & nature resilient future for the Lothian Esks. #NatureBasedSolutions #LothianEsks #Penicuik

🚨 Invasive species alert: 1st pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) reports in Scotland for 2025. Confirmed on Dee, Spey, Kyle of Sutherland; caught lower Tweed & River Thurso → tinyurl.com/y8ac3vph Originally from the Pacific, they follow a 2-year lifecycle. fms.scot/pink-salmon-in-scotland/

We’ve made great strides this season clearing Himalayan Balsam from the River Devon at Muckhart Community Woodland! Huge thanks to our dedicated volunteers and to @tcvnational.bsky.social's EPIC Ochils groups for their amazing support. 💪🌱 #BalsamPull #RiverRestoration

🌿 Stenhouse Habitat Survey🌼 Charlotte and Niall were out surveying the habitats around Stenhouse Reservoir last week and came across some beautiful species!

Today, we bid a fond farewell to Jonathan Louis, who is moving on to pastures new after 12 years with Forth Rivers Trust. To say he has had a positive impact on the team is an understatement and he will surely be missed, though we wish him all the best for his next steps.

Tonight! Community INNS workshop at The Dave King Partnership Centre (East Calder) from 7-8.30pm. Map INNS, learn about how to tackle them, & enjoy hot drinks and biscuits. See you there! Funded by West Lothian Council thanks to ScotGov's Nature Restoration Fund, managed by @naturescot.bsky.social

Still time to join our 'balsam bashing' session this Thursday in Almondell & Calderwood Country Park from 10.30am-2pm. Help remove invasive non-native Himalayan Balsam to prevent its spread...it's satisfying, good for local biodiversity, & we’ll support you with hot drinks and biscuits!

Staff Niall and Mario attended a peatland restoration course up North last week, run by Crichton Carbon Centre. All aspects of the project design process were discussed, including different types of erosion features, how to map them using GIS, and the implementations needed to stabilise them.

🌿DEVON BALSAM BASHING 2025🌿 Help control invasive Himalayan balsam along the River Devon with us... weekly volunteer sessions kick off Wed 16 July, 10am at Muckhart Woods.📍 maps.app.goo.gl/ztCiRhVTgu9K... Wear long sleeves/trousers + bring lunch & water. #VolunteerWithUs #BalsamBashing #RiverDevon

Check out our podcast... As part of the exciting LENs launch in Scotland this week, Forth Rivers Trust are releasing our brand new podcast - The Sustainable Catchment Podcast!

🔬 Loch Leven Matters - Science Evening Great Friday night in Kinross helping with @ukceh.bsky.social's science evening! After tasty food from Loch Leven’s Larder, we headed to Greens Burn to demo electrofishing. #LochLevenMatters #CommunityLearning #Electrofishing #SalmoTrutta #LoveYourLocalRiver

🌿Trimmer and brushcutter training day 2🌿 Day 2 of the team's training consisted of some practice with the trimmers and trying different trimmer machines. It was fantastic getting to learn this new skill and we look forward to putting it into practice!

6 of the Trust team were in a sunny Stirling today for the first day of their Lantra trimmer and brushcutter training. We ran over health and safety considerations and basic machinery maintenance...

🌍 It’s #WorldEnvironmentDay! This year’s theme: Beat Plastic Pollution. Plastic dumped in streets ends up in our rivers and seas, choking wildlife & polluting places we all value. In the Forth catchment, we see this impact every day eg. found in a river in 2018, a plastic Wispa wrapper & a wet wipe.

@forthriverstrust.bsky.social‬ is also looking for an Ecologist. Full-time (40 hours/week), fixed-term for 12 months (possible extension). Location: Hybrid - home working and Forth Rivers Trust office (Edinburgh), with regular travel across the Forth catchment c-js.uk/4jyW850

Sustainable Land Management Advisor with @forthriverstrust.bsky.social‬ Full-time (40 hours/week), fixed-term for 12 months (possible extension). Location: Hybrid - home working and Forth Rivers Trust office (Edinburgh), with regular travel across the Forth catchment c-js.uk/3Syid8B

This weekend, Clara from our team attended the Portmoak Community Gala near Loch Leven 🌿 It was a great chance to share updates on our work in the Leven Catchment, especially our Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs) project. #LevenLENs #LandscapeConnections

🌱 Funding available in Loch Leven for tree planting🌳 We're looking to support tree planting in the Loch Leven catchment as part of our Leven LENs project. If you're a farmer or land manager looking for native broadleaf planting, get in touch to express interest - hurry, the deadline is on Monday!

🌊 River levels still low around the Forth 💧 At Craigforth, the river sits just over half a metre (0.574m) — within the normal range, but trending downwards. Recent rain offered some relief after weeks of dry weather, but levels are falling again. #RiverLevels #WaterWatch

🌿 West Lothian Community INNS workshop - less than 2 weeks to go! 🌿 We are running a workshop on Thursday 5th of June at Murieston Village Hall from 7.30-9pm. Join us to learn more about Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS), associated impacts, & how you can get involved to help make a difference.

🔍Rust fungus trials🔬 CABI kindly shared an update with us about the rust fungus we hope to trial as a control method for Himalayan Balsam in the Devon catchment. Here's photos of Charlotte collecting balsam seeds, the plants being tested at stem-infecting stage...

West Lothian Community INNS workshop 🌿🔍 We're pleased to announce we'll run an INNS workshop on Thursday 5th of June at Murieston Village Hall from 7.30-9pm. Join FRT staff, learn more about Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS), their associated impacts, & how you can get involved...

They say the early bird gets the worm🪱 and yesterday morning Mario spotted plenty of wildlife activity during his dawn bird survey... He had an early rise to survey Stenhouse Reservoir in Fife, but alongside spotting Shellducks, Reed Warblers, Reed Bunting, and a swallow, he also saw...

♻ Dalkeith litter pick ♻ A big thank you to those who joined our litter pick on Friday 2nd May in Dalkeith. With some sunny weather, it was great to spend time next to the South Esk removing several kilos of the litter and debris in just 2 hours - see photos below for the variety of things we found!

🎉Fundraiser grand total🎉 Our 'Rooted in Rivers' fundraiser as part of Big Give's Green Match Fund 2025 concluded at midday last Tuesday... and we're excited to share that we fundraised OVER £18,800!! Reaching this amount from 62 donations in just 7 days is a fantastic achievement...

🌱 We’re looking to support nature in the Lothian Esks! 🐟 Whether you’re a land manager, farmer, a land-based business or organisation in the Lothian Esk Catchment, you can get in touch with us for support.

🎉 Over 2k fundraised for riparian tree planting so far! Help us reach our 20k goal 🙌 Huge thanks to those who have supported our Green Match fund campaign already – your donations will help us to protect and improve rivers and support biodiversity through tree planting around rivers.

🌍 Happy World Earth Day from Forth Rivers Trust! 🌍 Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 each year, promoting environmental protection & awareness. Today YOU can make a direct difference to rivers in the Forth catchment. 👉https://tinyurl.com/RootedInRivers

📢 Our Big Give fundraiser is LIVE! 📢 Can you support us to build tree cover around rivers? FOR 1 WEEK ONLY, every donation to our #RootedInRivers Green Match Fund campaign is DOUBLED: every £10 becomes £20 for our riparian tree planting efforts in the Forth! donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

Fish in the Class 2025 - it's a wrap! 🐟💙 It's been a week since our final fish release as part of the Fish in the Classroom project 2025, our yearly project educating the next generation about our environment. This year we worked with 8 schools, an estimated 260+ pupils rearing brown trout...

On Sunday we were delighted to attend a training session exploring how to run native tree nurseries, hosted by Darroch Nurseries. The session gave our staff a hands-on opportunity to learn about seed propagation & discuss the importance of biosecurity and measures for recording provenance.

🌞 A throwback to a sunny day last Thursday when some excellent Network Rail volunteers helped plant over 250 trees on the Danny Burn. 🌳 Great effort all, well done: every tree planted will build a riparian corridor to help shade & cool the Danny Burn as the trees mature, supporting biodiversity..

Return of the Esk litterpick! ♻ Did you know that 80% of marine litter comes from land? Help us stop litter before it reaches our seas…join the Citizen Esk team as we lead a litterpick on FRIDAY 2nd MAY, from 1.30-3.30pm, following the cancellation of our previous event.

Let's travel to central Scotland to explore how small stream and peatland restoration is being carried out in the Forth catchment. This is MERLIN Case Study 17, and @forthriverstrust.bsky.social tells us about it in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMni...

🌿 Stenhouse Reservoir Restoration Development 🌿 Exciting news! We’re beginning a new development phase project to explore the future restoration of a much-loved but heavily modified landscape. Working with the landowner, our goal is to conduct baseline ecological surveys and develop plans that will

Momentum builds for Leven LENs! Last Friday, the Leven LENs team hosted a breakfast event for eligible farmers in the Leven Catchment to introduce Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs), explain how it works, + share more about the application process. It was fantastic to feel the interest in the...

Proud to see our co-director Amelia and Isabel from project partner Lens Co delivering a talk at the 26th the River Restoration Centre Conference yesterday, exploring the potential of LENs as a delivery mechanism for catchment management.

Last week we teamed up with @wtscotsocial.bsky.social to demonstrate willow spiling at Blaeberry Wood 🍃 It was great to see everybody getting stuck in, working together to learn this traditional skill.

Hats off to @forthriverstrust.bsky.social for their willow spiling expertise at #BlaeberryWood last week 😍 Was great fun to join forces & help restore part of the White Burn 🌊

🐟 Fish releases have begun! 🐟 Our yearly Fish in the Class project has entered its final stage–the fish releases! A HUGE well done to the 8 schools across our catchment, who have done a fantastic job rearing brown trout from eggs to alevins and fry ready to start their journey in local rivers.

FRT, along with some amazing partners, are working in partnership to co-ordinate and scale up the delivery of nature-based projects within the Esk catchment.

Delighted to be in attendance at the Fisheries Management Scotland conference today where our co-director Amelia delivered a presentation to fisheries, rivers trusts and board networks across Scotland, about our work on the Leven LENs project.

Looking forward to Grace from @forthriverstrust.bsky.social joining us at #BlaeberryWood next Thursday to help restore a section of the riverbank 🌊 Fancy getting stuck in? We've got a couple spaces left to join 👉 buff.ly/EyrOdMb 📸 Hannah Drummond

Staff member Niall was in attendance at the Lantra ALBAS (Awards for Land Based + Aquaculture Skills) last Thursday at Crieff Hydro, as a returning Industry Champion. He then took the Champion's group out on the Allan Water on the Friday to see some of our natural flood management measures -