A Scottish country estate’s innovative efforts to help boost the population of wild salmon
The Glenmuick Estate recently appeared on BBC’s Countryfile to show the work it is doing to help ‘The Missing Salmon Project’ – an Atlantic Salmon Trust initiative which is trying to reverse the decline of wild salmon in Scotland.
The salmon in the River Dee and the River Muick, which both flow through the Estate, are being given a helping hand by the Estate’s deer farm.
Deer legs, a by-product from the farm, are being used by the Dee District Salmon Fishery Board to return nutrients to the rivers.
Juvenile salmon are then able to feed on the nutrients, increasing their chances of survival and boosting the salmon population in the long term.
Ian McKenzie, who is responsible for managing the Glenmuick Estate, helped get the project off the ground after the Deeside Fisheries Board got in touch with the Estate to see if they could help.
He said: “We were contacted by the Deeside Fisheries Board who asked if we could supply them with deer legs from Glenmuick deer farm to help with salmon conservation.
“I approached Glenmuick’s owner to see what he thought, and he was only too happy to help. Deer legs are a waste product that butchers don’t want, so it made perfect sense to give them to the Deeside Fisheries Board to make use of them. We’re always looking for ways to help the environment, so getting involved with a project aimed at reversing the decline in Scotland’s wild salmon seemed like a worthwhile thing to do.”
For further information email Ian MacKenzie here
