We’ve just completed work on one of the UK’s largest river restoration projects, in Northumberland’s Breamish Valley. The River Breamish had been historically modified and straightened centuries ago for agricultural purposes, with around a mile of river channel lost. Tweed Forum has been part of a team helping to restore the river’s natural processes as part of the LIFE WADER nature recovery programme.
Credit: Tommy Wilkinson
In partnership with the Environment Agency, Natural England and local landowner, Harehope Estate, we’ve reinstated the original meandering course of the river and created silt traps, shallow ponds, wetlands, embankment breaches and woody dams, delivering a more natural mosaic of habitats to help nature recovery, improve water quality and make the landscape more resilient to climate change.
The river will develop its own ‘final design’ and following recent rainfall it’s already spilled onto its floodplains, forming wetlands, with the river adapting and changing constantly. Habitat in and around the new river channel is already developing and being used by wildlife including heron, kingfishers and damselflies. Vegetation is starting to establish with water crowfoot sighted in the newly re-meandered section.
The Breamish is part of the River Till catchment and you can read more about our strategic restoration efforts in this catchment on our River Till Restoration Strategy page.
Do you know someone who goes above and beyond to project the River Tweed? Maybe an angler, farmer, landowner or community volunteer working to protect the rich natural, cultural or built heritage of the river and its catchment?
We’re now accepting nominations for the 10th Tweed Forum River Champion Award – which is open to people living or working in the Scottish Borders or North Northumberland. Our previous winners (see gallery below!) have been recognised for contributions in areas including riverfly monitoring, community woodland restoration, built heritage preservation, tackling invasive non-native plant species, pollution campaigning and conserving nature in a farm setting.
If you know of anyone you think should be nominated for this year’s Award, please get in touch by Friday 12 September, you can find out how on our River Champion page.
The Tweed catchment contains significant tributaries including the Teviot, Ettrick, Gala and Leader Waters, the Whiteadder and the River Till plus many smaller watercourses.
Congratulations to Craig Burmann-Duke, ghillie at Mertoun Estate near St Boswells, who has been awarded Scotland’s first AQUA (Aquatic Quality) biosecurity award for his work protecting the River Tweed from invasive species.
Tweed Forum nominated Craig for the award following his many years of volunteer work removing giant hogweed as part of our Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) programme. Craig encourages anglers on his beat to make use of a special wash station and drying racks to clean their fishing equipment before entering the water to ensure the removal of fragments of invasive plants and help prevent the spread of fish disease. He uses a special disinfectant supplied to ghillies along the river by the Tweed Foundation and also shares information and literature on DEFRA’s Check, Clean, Dry protocol to encourage good practice.
Craig Burmann-Duke, ghillie at Mertoun Estate near St Boswells, has been awarded Scotland’s first AQUA (Aquatic Quality) biosecurity award
As well as being the first AQUA accreditation in Scotland, this is the first time that the award has been presented to a wild salmon fishery. We’re delighted that Craig has received this award and hope that other ghillies and water asset managers across the Tweed catchment will also consider taking part in the AQUA scheme and champion biosecurity in their own areas.
Almost 10,000 trees were planted in the Scottish Borders in 2024-25 thanks to our Borders Tree Grant Scheme.
We run the initiative in conjunction with Borders Forest Trust to encourage the planting of native landscape trees and will be launching the 2025-26 Scheme at the Border Union Show on 25 July.
Grants of up to £1,000 are available for farmers, landowners and non-profit organisations such as schools and charities to plant trees in the coming autumn/winter season. The trees enhance the landscape, capture carbon, increase wildlife habitat and biodiversity and provide many additional benefits.
Hedgerow trees, parkland trees, tree lines, copses, riverside trees and orchards are all eligible for potential funding.
More information on how to apply can be found on our Borders Tree Planting Grant page. Or come along and visit us in person on Stand 8, Block 1 at this year’s Border Union Show.
The Borders Tree Grant Scheme is funded by Scottish Forestry, Woodland Trust Scotland and Scottish Borders Council.
Derek Robeson from Tweed Forum and Hannah Cockett from Borders Forest Trust. (📷 Lloyd Smith)
We’re very proud to share that Dr Derek Robeson, Conservation Manager at Tweed Forum, has been made a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies (FRAgS) of Great Britain.
This prestigious award recognises Derek’s decades of work with farmers delivering environmental projects on the ground as well as his passion for integrating farming, forestry and conservation and for sharing his knowledge with schools and university students.
Derek’s expertise and knowledge are second to none. He’s an invaluable part of our team and richly deserves this recognition.
The latest Tweed Matters is packed with updates on what we’ve been up to over the last year. In this edition we feature another award win for our UNESCO-recognised Eddleston Water Project, celebrate our 2024 Tweed Forum River Champion and showcase our new catchment models, as well as all the usual project updates and other news from the Tweed Forum team.
We are looking to recruit up to 3 new Trustees to join our Board. Whether you are an experienced Trustee or wanting to take up a new way of contributing to this important, varied and dynamic area of work, we want to hear from you.
Tweed Forum is registered charity with the remit to “promote the sustainable use of the whole of the Tweed Catchment through holistic and integrated management and planning”. In close partnership with our members, Tweed Forum works to protect, enhance and restore the rich natural, built and cultural heritage of the River Tweed and its tributaries.
Working at both the strategic and project level, our priority is to achieve tangible work on the ground that delivers multiple benefits. Since our inception as an informal liaison group over 30 years ago, we have grown to become a leader in the field of integrated land and water management at both the national and international level.
Our new Trustees will ideally have skills in one or more of the following areas:
• Land management including soils, regenerative agriculture, forestry • Natural capital markets and metrics • Ecology and river/wetland restoration • Education • A Construction/civils background • Tourism/hospitality • Media/PR/marketing • HR
As a Trustee you will have the chance to be part of a team that: • Contributes actively in developing the strategic direction of Tweed Forum and associated issues • Ensures Tweed Forum acts in accordance with its governing document, charitable and other relevant legislation or regulations
Candidates from the English part of the catchment are particularly welcomed. Appointments will officially be made at our AGM in September 2025. Note that this is an unpaid role.
We’re delighted to welcome Jane Gibson to the Tweed Forum team as a new Project Officer tasked with helping river woodland creation across the Tweed catchment as part of the Riverwoods Blueprint Project.
In collaboration with landowners, partners and local communities, Jane will be working to expand riparian (river) woodlands and contribute to a range of river restoration, wetland creation and educational initiatives. Planting the right trees in the right riverside locations at the right scale can unlock a host of environmental benefits, from enhancing biodiversity and improving water quality to reducing soil erosion, slowing flood waters and capturing carbon.
Riparian trees are particularly important for the Tweed’s world-renowned fishery to counter the effects of climate change and habitat degradation. As temperatures rise, the trees provide shade to help cool rivers and reduce thermal stress for fish. Thriving riparian woodlands also support populations of the invertebrates that feed young salmon and trout.
Raised in the Borders, Jane has a strong background in environmental and forestry work. Her post is funded by Tweed Forum, the River Tweed Commission and the Riverwoods Blueprint Project, which is led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players.
It’s been exciting to see water flowing into a newly re-meandered section of the River Breamish in Northumberland (pictured below). This work is part of one of the UK’s largest river restoration projects which we’ve been working on in partnership with the LIFE WADER nature recovery group, the Environment Agency, Natural England and Harehope Estate.
Like many river channels in the UK, this section of the Breamish had been straightened and modified over the centuries to make room for intensive farming. This disconnected the river from its floodplain leading to problems including reduced biodiversity, a decline in freshwater species and an increased flood risk downstream.
The project is restoring the river to a more natural state (see visualisation below), reconnecting it to the floodplain and bringing a huge range of benefits for water quality, habitats and biodiversity. This includes enhanced conditions for salmon and trout populations at every stage of their life cycle in the river.
The Breamish is a tributary of the River Till and this work is a key element of the River Till Restoration Strategy, which has been guiding restoration efforts across the River Till SSSI and SAC since 2013.
It was that time of year again as, this week, members of the Tweed Forum team welcomed around 1,200 primary five children to our education zone as part of the Border Union Agricultural Society’s Schools Countryside Day 2025. Pupils from every school in the Scottish Borders region are invited to come along to this special day to learn about farming, food production and rural life, and we have been joining in the fun regularly since the event got underway in 2013.
Our zone included our always popular, bespoke catchment models as well as our brand new exhibition panels, which proved a great addition to our outreach and engagement resources. Hamish, Jane and Emily (below, from left to right) delivered a great programme for the kids, including a tangible demonstration (via the catchment models) of the benefits of restoring our landscapes to a more natural state; benefits such as reducing flood risk and reversing biodiversity loss. Thanks to the Society for hosting us and to the children for being as enthusiastic as ever!
