The launch of the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) in spring 2021 provided an opportunity for the Partnership to work with Angus landowners on a successful £140,000 development phase bid in 2022, followed by a £1.4 million delivery phase from 2024 to 2026.
The project’s aim was to deliver climate change adaptation and nature restoration in the upper South Esk catchment. A multi-habitat nature restoration approach across multiple Angus Glens -Clova, Doll and Prosen and estates including Rottal, Clova and Prosen addressed NRF priority themes including ‘Transforming Nature’ Habitat and Species and Freshwater Restoration. Priority outcomes included:
- Creating landscape scale nature networks;
- Restoring water course and floodplain function mitigating the impacts of climate change;
- Returning heavily managed land to a natural state; and
- Increasing habitat and species diversity adopting nature-based approaches to managing key ecosystems.
Key workstreams include woodland expansion, wetland creation and river restoration, carried out at a scale never attempted before in Angus. The project’s development phase carried out in 2023 allowed the Partnership to identify on the ground ecological restoration opportunities with estimated costs for delivery. These included:
- Re-meandering 244m of the March Burn;
- Creation of new wetland habitat systems across 25 ha over three sites;
- Installation of up to 104 Large Woody Structures;
- 7ha of riparian woodland along 17.5km of currently open watercourse;
- 5 ha of native treeline woodland creation;
- 155 ha of native woodland via natural regeneration; and
- Semi-natural grass and heathland habitat restoration
The project ended in March 2026, and outputs identified above were delivered, excluding the installation of large wood structures. Challenges posed by the second wettest start to the year recorded in Angus in 2026, limited the final area of wetland creation however all three sites were successfully enhanced.
