Draft Proposal – East Lammermuir River Regeneration
We have a vision of a regenerating landscape in which:
- Uplands form a dynamic mosaic of habitats including wetland and bog, heather moorland, scrub and woodland…
- Rivers are free-flowing, without barriers to fish migration and able to meander and flood to form pools and marshy wetlands….
- Riparian woodland is able to flourish and regenerate, shading and cooling watercourses and forming an active part of the river ecosystem….
- Large areas of actively regenerating native woodlands are connected across the landscape by woodland and scrubby hedgerows to form wildlife corridors…..
- Coastal dunes and salt marshes are dynamic and resilient whilst offshore, seagrass meadows are regenerating and kelp forests are flourishing…
We believe that landscape scale regeneration is essential for restoring biodiversity as well as for adaptation to climate change and reducing flood risk to downstream settlements, West Barns in particular.
We want to understand how such a vision can be implemented alongside development of regenerative agricultural practices, to the benefit of farmers and the wider community to help them better understand and enjoy the natural heritage.
We are keen to explore how landowners and members of the wider community can work together to restore biodiversity, to create a local landscape that is better adapted to climate change, in which nature and humans can flourish together whilst supporting a re-localising food economy.
We are aware that two landowners within this area (Spott Estate and Clint Estate) have signed up as Northwoods Land Partners (part of Scotland the Big Picture) and this could provide early opportunities for collaboration.
East Lammermuir is bounded by the Dunglass Burn to the East and the Biel Water to the west. In between, there are many short river catchments including Bilsdean Burn, Thornton Burn, Dry Burn and Brox Burn. All of these catchments are facing a range of issues and have great scope for increasing biodiversity. The area is coming under intense pressure from numerous energy companies involved with expanding renewable energy generation and storage and associated electricity grid infrastructure. This provides challenges but also a potential opportunity to secure funds for some ambitious restoration projects.
The Dreel Burn project in Fife provides one model that we are keen to explore further to see if it could form the basis for one or more similar initiatives in the East Lammermuir area, and potentially across other parts of East Lothian.
