ALMOST 3000 people signed a petition supporting the campaign to restore the River Garry in North Perthshire when it was launched at the game Conservancy Trust’s Scottish Fair at Scone Palace at the weekend, writes angling correspondent Ken Bell.

But while the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board is seeking to ensure that under the European Water Framework Directive (WFD), flow is restored to 13 miles of the river, Ian Marchant, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy, which uses the abstracted water for hydro schemes in the Tummel Valley, has questioned whether the Garry was ever a prime salmon river. He also blames angling pressure in the 70s for declining salmon numbers.

In a letter to MSP John Swinney on the state of the Garry, Mr Marchant says, “It should not be forgotten that, around the start of the last century, falls on the Garry were blasted by the Duke of Atholl to ease the passage of salmon.

“This suggests that it was not naturally passable to all fish and there is no basis to say the Garry was ever a prime salmon river.

“The Tay as a whole had an abundance of salmon before these falls were eased and, in the 1970s, long after the hydro schemes were built, it was still a prolific salmon river, with some saying an unsustainable volume of fish was being killed annually by anglers.

“More recent impacts on salmon numbers are primarily related to marine environment conditions and these trends are reflected in rivers across Scotland, both with and without hydro.”

SEPA is working with SSE on a project to restore the Garry, which they admit has been largely dry since part of the Tummel scheme was completed in 1957.

“Through careful re-allocation of water that has historically been released from other sites in the Tummel scheme, the Garry can be brought back to life without affecting the overall output of renewable electricity,” his letter states. “As part of this project, the River Cuaich and the Allt Sluie which flow into the Upper Spey will also be restored.

“This is one of three projects being developed with SSE for the first river basin management programme. Other projects are for the Glascarnoch in Ross-shire and the Loyne and Allt Doe in Inverness-shire.

“The fisheries organisations that have highlighted the issue in the media and have been encouraging constituents to contact you have also been involved with the WFD for many years. They have now chosen to step outside the process set up by the Executive and SEPA.

“A more constructive and reasoned approach by them would be to continue to engage with SEPA and the Executive within the framework involving all other stakeholders.”

Water from the Garry, he said, was abstracted under two pieces of legislation, the first in the 1930s when the original hydro schemes were built and again in the 1950s when more schemes were constructed.

Water of the Garry and tributaries is diverted to Loch Errochty by a tunnel, then passes through Errochty, Clunie and Pitlochry power stations. Under natural conditions, Garry water would only feed Pitlochry.

“This would lead to a loss in renewable energy generation,” he states. “This scheme was subject to a public inquiry and, again (as in the 1930 legislation), no provision for compensation water was made.”