Wanted: New Trustees!

ELCV urgently needs more people to join as trustees to help run our charity. Without another three or four new trustees, very likely the charity will be unable to continue. For this reason, we are emailing all countryside volunteers to invite them to consider stepping forward to join us as a trustee. You may have seen the email below (download here), which explains what ELCV does, why we need new trustees and what they do – and how to find out more if you are interested in getting involved.

And/Or see an article in the Courier here

 

A Good Workman Always Thanks His Tools!

Friends of Yellowcraig volunteers making use of some of the tools provided by the grant award from North Berwick Golf Club Community Fund, as they tackle the invasive plant pirri pirri in the sand dunes at Yellowcraig. It’s a task that requires good tools, and as importantly the hands to wield them – so if you are interested in getting involved with countryside volunteering then please get in touch: What can we offer you? | Countryside Volunteering | East Lothian Council

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

ELCV AGM

The ELCV recently held their Annual General Meeting (we finally report - better late than never!). The restrictions of Covid meant we kept deferring it, but the Scottish Charities Commission then gave blanket permission to temporarily run such meetings online instead of physically, so that's what we did. And as part of the AGM we approved a change to our constitution to allow us to carry on this way in the future - we've moved into the 21st Century!

What did it cover? - well Jenny gave us a resume of the year, John Harrison updated us on progress with the Aberlady Hub, Dave Quarendon reported on the giant hogweed projects and our social media sites, Dick & Jenny gave an overview of the finances, and all the committee members were re-elected - apart from our leader Dave Oldham, who sadly has had to retire due to ill health, so Dick Gill agreed to take over as chairman. And we welcomed two new members onto the committee - Andrew Stevenson and Terry Page.

See the full details in the minutes on our website here