Scotland hopes to save wild salmon by planting millions of trees next to rivers

Fisheries have planted 250,000 saplings along key tributaries of the River Dee and plan to plant a million by 2035. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Millions of trees are being planted beside Scotland’s remotest rivers and streams to protect wild salmon from the worst effects of climate heating.

Fisheries scientists have found rivers and burns in the Highlands and uplands are already too warm in summer for wild Atlantic salmon as they head upstream to spawn, increasing the threat to the species’ survival.