Outdoors: The once-polluted River Devon has become a haven for all manner of flora and fauna

On a balmy evening this September I hooked my first-ever salmon. The fish took the fly like a juggernaut, the rod bent sharply and the water in front of me boiled in a froth.

I was not going to lose this fish, so I played it cannily, and after 20 minutes in the fading light I was gaining the upper hand. I am not going to lose this fish, I kept repeating to myself. I am not going to lose this fish. I even began to smile at the anticipation of landing it. Then the salmon suddenly made a strong surge upstream right past me. The line went slack. I had lost the fish. There was a wail of anguish in the dark night air.

While this may just sound like another classic tale of the “one that got away”, one of the remarkable facets about this incident is that it didn’t occur in some pristine Highland river renowned for its salmon and trout, but rather on the River Devon, a small river in Clackmannanshire, which for much of the 19th and 20th centuries was blighted by pollution.

Like many other Scottish rivers in central Scotland, the Devon suffered from pollution from textile mills, bleachfields and the wash-out from mines that began to impact upon the biodiversity of the river from the 1840s onwards, and which was further compounded by agricultural run-off in the 20th century. The devastation was immense and many rivers throughout lowland Scotland became virtual open sewers, a chemical cocktail devoid of life and vitality. Our rivers had become a national disgrace.

River fisheries expert Tom McKenzie, who is currently a trustee of the River Forth Fisheries Trust, recalls that even as recently as the latter half of the 20th century parts of the River Carron that flowed through Denny and Falkirk and out to the sea at Grangemouth “comprised of shades of strange colours”.

But in recent times there has been the most remarkable turnaround in our rivers’ fortunes. The combination of the closure of heavy industry and new legislation to enhance water quality meant our rivers began to recover.

McKenzie says: “In 1994 we carried out a survey of the River Carron and found there to be no salmon and poor invertebrate populations. But working with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and a number of other support organisations, the amount of pollution into the river was significantly reduced, restocking took place, and today the river supports diverse forms of river life.”

The same story is repeating itself throughout the country. McKenzie says a key part of the success of our cleaner rivers has been through a whole host of organisations working together with one common aim. For example, organisations such as the River Forth Fisheries Trust are working hard to remove obstacles in rivers that impede fish migration. It is important not to be complacent, says McKenzie, and pollution incidents still occur, but overall the future for our rivers is looking brighter than ever.

And surely no more so than on the Devon, a river that I have become totally obsessed with in recent years. The sheer diversity of life by its banks is quite astonishing – there are kingfishers and otters, sand martins and daubenton’s bats, and this year I even saw an osprey hunting along its course. In winter there are teal, goldeneyes and goosanders, and in spring and summer the boggy margins and flood meadows are home to numerous wild flowers. This is a river that has recovered from years of neglect. It is a story of the resilience of nature and its capability to bounce back.