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The Tamdhu Fish Pass project, which SEPA is a partner of, was unveiled last week. The 4.5 metre high, 16m long construction is now allowing salmon and sea trout to breed in a 2.3 mile stretch of the Knockando Burn that has been inaccessible since Victorian times. The target date for reopening this section of the Knockando Burn to migrating fish was 2027 but the Tamdhu Fish Pass Project has allowed this to be completed nine years early.

Wild eels are being microchipped in a bid to bring them back from the brink of global extinction.

Numbers of glass eels returning to the UK have decreased by 95% in the past 40 years due to habitat loss and obstructions in waterways hindering their movements, according to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT).

The trust blames “low-lying land reclamation, flood control measures - such as tidal flaps - and obsolete industrial structures like weirs” for destroying and preventing access to eels’ habitat.

An inaugural grant from the newly established Endangered Landscapes Programme will enable Rewilding Europe and local partners to scale up rewilding efforts across an expansive area of wetland and steppe in the transboundary Danube Delta area. This will bring huge benefits to wild nature and a wide range of local stakeholders.

The department says that reclassifying responsibility for the rivers will benefit local communities by allowing those most familiar with the land to take control of the watercourses, while ensuring that the agency can better prioritise resources to where they can most effectively reduce flood risk.