Yesterday, I had the pleasure of an excursion of the current projects taking place along the River Dee, thanks to @TheRiverDee Trust.

The glorious sunshine allowed for an afternoon of visiting the River Muick 2MW Hydro, a £6.5m project which will power over 1,500 homes or 6% of the Cairngorms – a fantastic rural investment by Balmoral Castle serving the future of a sustainable Scotland.

In addition to the new Hydro project, The River Dee Trust continue their excellent work with more tree planting, salmon ladders and nutrient trials in an attempt to preserve the environment and habitat of salmon and pearl mussels. As Pearl Mussel species champion, I welcome these efforts, as we need to be doing more to tackle extinction and the impact of climate change on river wildlife and pollution. The threat of the temperature rises through climate change threaten the whole of our river systems across Scotland and whilst localised tree planting will play an important part, there is a far greater global challenge to be addressed.

River temperatures have already risen several degrees over recent years and have been a major contributing factor in the decline in salmon numbers. Salmon not only are a species that need looking after in their own right but are also a host species to the pearl mussel. Salmon are also important to the economies of local communities along Deeside providing employment and business for hotels and shops as fisherman come from the world over.