Join the River Dee Trust and Fishery Board team in exploring the restored Beltie Burn site on this Walk & Talk.
We will meet at 10am in the car park at the Beltie Burn, just outside Torphins. After a short welcome then we will walk along the burn, stopping en route to look at some of the key features of our landscape scale restoration work on the Beltie. Tea, coffee and biscuits are provided afterwards with the Q&A.
Note - please come with suitable outdoor clothing for the weather, such as a waterproof and sturdy footwear or wellie boots.
Part of the Beltie Burn, a significant tributary of the Dee which runs through the village of Torphins, is the site of a large regeneration project completed in 2020 which changed the canalised river into a more natural, meandering river. The aim of the work was to improve the habitat for fish and other wildlife whilst also allowing the river to expand and contract during periods of high water.
1.5 km of river channel that was straightened in the 1860s to accommodate the Deeside railway was re-meandered into a 2-km river, with the channel being reconnected to a 10-ha wetland with four in-channel wetland ponds created and floodplain trees planted. This helps flood alleviation and water quality by slowing down peak flows and the greater habitat variability allows fish to survive during periods of extreme temperatures and floods.
