Project Laxford

Wild Salmon Crisis

The wild Atlantic salmon population in Great Britain is now endangered.

A CORE RIVER PARTNERSHIP IN NORTHWEST SUTHERLAND

About Project Laxford

Project Laxford is an ambitious, long-term partnership with Grosvenor’s Reay Forest Estate to restore an entire river catchment for wild Atlantic salmon and the wider landscape they depend on. Set across 118 km² of northwest Sutherland in the north of Scotland, the project brings together habitat restoration and cutting-edge monitoring to understand what wild salmon need to thrive – and then put that knowledge into action.

From restoring native woodland and reconnecting spawning habitat to tracking juvenile salmon, monitoring river temperatures and counting returning adults, every part of the programme is connected. The aim is not simply to deliver individual interventions, but to rebuild a healthier, more resilient catchment from source to sea.

Project Laxford in numbers

118km²

Catchment-scale restoration underway

1,000,000

The number trees to be planted in our woodland restoration goal

3,400

Returning adult salmon logged on sonar

How Project Laxford works

Catchment Restoration

Drone mapping and baseline surveys as part of our catchment wide ‘audit’.
Ongoing, managed reduction in the deer population to enable natural riverside woodland regeneration.
Fenced enclosures to protect spawning and nursery streams.
Tens of thousands of native trees planted.
Large Wood Structure (LWS) trial underway.
Scoping work to explore the reconnection of historic river channel.

Advanced Monitoring

Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tagging of up to 2,000 juvenile salmon parr each year.
Adaptive Resolution Imaging Sonar (ARIS) fishing counting camera.
14 in-river temperature loggers recording water temperatures every 15 minutes.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis to map biodiversity and species abundance.
Invertebrate sampling.

Catchment-scale habitat restoration

Habitat restoration sits at the heart of Project Laxford, but the approach goes far beyond improving individual stretches of river. Wild salmon depend on a functioning ecosystem, from the burns where they spawn and the woodland that shades and cools them, to the soils, wetlands and wider landscape that influence how water moves through the catchment.

That is why Project Laxford takes a whole-ecosystem approach to recovery. Restoring native woodland, reconnecting spawning habitat and improving the natural function of rivers and tributaries can create cooler water, greater habitat diversity and a landscape better able to cope with floods, droughts and a changing climate. By restoring the ecosystem around the salmon, we create the conditions for the salmon to recover too.

A whole catchment mapped

One of the most important first steps has been to build a detailed picture of the Laxford catchment before deciding where restoration should happen. Using drone surveys and detailed habitat mapping, the project has been able to look beyond individual stretches of river and understand the catchment as a connected landscape – identifying where habitat is degraded, where natural processes can be restored and where intervention could deliver the greatest benefit.

That evidence gives Project Laxford the foundation for a strategic, catchment-wide restoration plan rather than a series of isolated interventions. It means future work can be targeted and prioritised, with restoration decisions based on a much clearer understanding of how the river, tributaries and surrounding landscape function together.

A Strategic Restoration Plan

Project Laxford uses evidence from across the river system to understand where intervention is needed most, identify the actions likely to have the greatest impact, and ensure that restoration measures work together towards a common goal.

This provides a long-term roadmap for recovery, helping to prioritise investment, coordinate delivery and measure progress over time. By planning at catchment scale, restoration can move from isolated interventions to a connected programme of action capable of delivering lasting change for wild salmon and the wider ecosystem.

Restoration underway

Across the catchment, restoration is underway. An ongoing, managed reduction in deer numbers is allowing riverside woodland to regenerate, while large fenced enclosures have been installed around key salmon spawning streams, helping to restore shade, biodiversity and resilience.

Elsewhere, a trial using ‘large wood structures’ in the form of fallen trees is taking place, aiming to kick-start natural processes within stream channels, and the team is planning to restore a section of historically diverted river channel. It is thought that this could increase the available spawning and nursery habitat in the lower river by 30%.

Monitoring

Alongside restoration, Project Laxford has established a comprehensive monitoring system to understand the salmon population and measure the impact of restoration over time. An ARIS sonar camera provides an annual count of adult salmon returning to the river, while PIT tagging and a network of four detection arrays track the movement and survival of juvenile fish through the catchment. Up to 2,000 juvenile salmon are tagged each year, building a detailed, long-term picture of the population.

This is supported by wider environmental monitoring, including 14 automated temperature loggers, habitat surveys and eDNA sampling. Together, these systems allow us to connect what is happening to salmon with changes taking place across the wider catchment, helping us understand where restoration is working, measure its impact and continually improve where action is targeted.