Tay Rivers Trust

The Tay Rivers Trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee whose charitable objectives are to restore and maintain aquatic biodiversity by means of practical, responsible and sustainable approaches to land water and fishery management, based on sound science for the benefit of the community as a whole.

It also seeks to protect, conserve, improve and enhance all fish species and their ecological cycles, to advance education, training and study and to provide a communications resource for all interested parties.

In effect, unlike the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board, it has a remit to perform research into all species of fish in the River Tay catchment area, their environment and anything which might impact upon them.

It might also manage or advise on the management of fish stocks and it also has a remit to disseminate the findings of research and educate the public about all the species of fish and their environment in the River Tay and its tributaries.

In those areas where their objectives are aligned, the Tay Rivers Trust works in collaboration with the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board. The Trust also pursues it own policies and projects in other areas.

Directors

 

The Tay Rivers Trust is administered by a board of trustees.

Currently, the directors are:

Calum Innes

Chairman

 

Councillor JACK WELCH

 

Peter Greig

 

Dr Nicola Thompson

 

Bob White

 

Jerry Saunders

 

Projects

 

The Tay Rivers Trust was set up in 1987, then called the Tay Foundation. Since that time it has been, and continues to be, involved in numerous projects aimed at safeguarding and improving the health of the River Tay system.

The main early project the Tay Foundation was responsible for, and to this day its most significant project, was raising funds for the buyout of net fisheries in the Tay estuary owned by Perth and Kinross Council and the Tay Salmon Fisheries Company. This process was finally completed at the end of the 1996 netting season. The Tay Rivers Trust now has a long lease of all the major net fisheries in the Firth of Tay and indeed is outright owner of another which was gifted to it.

Thereafter the Tay Rivers Trust has continued to fund research projects within the district and contribute to various conservation initiatives. 

Detailed descriptions of the projects the Tay Rivers Trust has been involved in or contributed to can be found in the Project Archive page.

The Trust is now very keen to greatly expand on these previous initiatives. It has identified 10 issues from the wider River Plan which it is championing, with 3 issues, the Lowland Rivers Project, the Upper Shee Project and the River Lyon Project top prioirities for 2023. 

More details on our priority projects for 2023 can be found here.