Giant Hogweed

The River Tyne Giant Hogweed Eradication programme

Hogweed Kick-Off Meetings

Join us for one of our 2025 launch meetings for the Esk or the Tyne. Just an hour, but we’ll cover everyrthing you want to know: why it’s important, what happened last year, who is helping, even how to dig one up . Plus coffee and biscuits!

Both on a Thursday afternoon at 2pm:

  • Musselburgh: 20 February in the East Lothian Council Outdoor Learning Service at Musselburgh Racecourse
  • Hadington: 27 February in the Saltire Rooms at John Muir House

If you are interested, or want more details, please contact us mailto:hogweed@elcv.org.uk

Tyne All Clear

Gone to Seed

By August any Giant Hogweed on the Tyne will have dropped its seeds into the river, contaminating areas downstream for years to come. But we have again completely stopped this happening this year, along the whole 26 miles of the river. Due to the concerted volunteer efforts of all the riverside landowners and a group of 'spotters'. Read all about it here

Serious Spotting!

Tyne Hogweed Clear Again!

All Sightings 2021

July 27th

Year three of our Giant Hogweed Eradication programme on the River Tyne comes to a close, and again we have treated every plant that had any chance of flowering this year, and hundreds more as well that would have flowered next year. So the seed bank which is dormant in the soil, laid down years ago, is being steadily eroded.
This is thanks to the hard work of all the landowners - mostly farmers - voluntarily taking time out from their business to treat the plants on their land, organised by James Wyllie, an ex-farmer. And it's also thanks to the group of ELC volunteer spotters surveying & GPS-ing plants, which get added to our map, which ensures everyone knows where all the plants are - or better still, are not!
The number of flowering plants has reduced dramatically - from over 100 in 2019 to only 10 this year (excluding Tyninghame and Bellyford). And there is now a Hogweed-free gap stretching from Pencaitland to Hailes Castle - 8 miles.

Want more details? - see the full report at //www.elcv.org.uk/tasks/invasives/the-program/the-2021/

Why not join us next year to help with spotting? Contact us at hogweed@elcv.org.uk

Hogweed by the A68

One of the River Esk hogweed spotters was out for a walk and saw a large batch of the plant. Reckoned it was beside a burn which feeds into the Tyne and so he used the app on his mobile, recorded it, sent us his gpx file. This meant it was easy to go and investigate, and he was dead right on both counts - there were a dozen dead stems from last year complete with seed heads, fifty maturing plants. and hundreds of tiny shoots. It is on an embankment of the A68 and only feet away from the far upper reaches of the Bellyford Burn, which eventually feeds into the Tyne. We checked the burn a mile both up and downstream, and luckily it hasnt yet spread. But BEAR Scotland, who look after all the roads, have been urgently informed.

Giant Hogweed on the River Esk

Following on from our Giant Hogweed eradication project on the River Tyne, the Inveresk Village Society are launching their own programme to tackle the plant on the River Esk, initially on its lower reaches in East Lothian. They will be looking for local spotters - so if you live closer to the Esk than the Tyne, why not offer to help? See more details on their website at InvereskVillage.wordpress.com.