2024 End of Season Report

Rivers Tyne & Esk Again Clear of Flowering Plants!

---

Great Progress – River Tyne

• For the 6th year in a row we can say the River Tyne is free of any plant that could flower – and virtually every other plant too. Congratulations!
• This year on the 5km stretch between Pencaitland and Hailes -which has been clear of any flowering plants for years,  we found half a dozen individual plants scattered along the river, one of which was even flowering. It just goes to show that we have to stay vigilant and thorough – seeds can lie dormant for years waiting for the right conditions to germinate. And thorough: a flowering one means we missed it last year, either we never found it, or we didnt treat it properly. – if we miss one
• On the Bellyford Burn, where three years ago there were a hundred flowering plants, there only a few small plants. Unfortunately the seeds had spread downstream onto a neighbouring properties, where despite everone’s efforts, there were still a dozen flowering, which needed to be laboriously mopped up.

Great Progress – River Esk

• With tens of thousands of plants it is a daunting task. But after 4 years of effort, nearly all areas are now being actively treated by their landowners, including Musselburgh golf course, Buccleuch Estates, and Sainsbury’s at Straiton. On our green-tick surveys, we found flowering plants in only a few areas.
• In Musselburgh it has spread well away from the river, infesting the Eskbank industrial estate, Inveresk cemetery, Tescos, even the Health Centre! And any area waste ground – we newly found it in the grounds of Edenhall hospital, which closed over 10 years ago. We quickly organised a mop-up session
• This year Ian surveyed many of the upstream tributaries in Midlothian – over 45km of them! Most had never been checked before, so we were delighted to find only 5 new pockets of Hogweed (although saddened to find any!). Fortunately we have found them early, so they havent yet had a chance to spread downstream. These were upstream of Lasswade stretching up to Polton, at Gorebridge on the railway, Bonnyrigg in a new housing estate, and Hardengreen Water Works, on the May Burn at Straiton. We identified most of the landowners, who are all now on board with the programme.
• The map below shows everything that was found during the year, and again after the green-tick survey. Move the slider to see before/after

---

---

---

Hogweed Elsewhere

There are some flowering infestations not on our rivers. So whilst not so critical, wherever we hear of it we do our best to contact the landowners, who are always sympathetic, if not necessarily very active (the railways in particular)

This year we have allocated several new spotters to different off-river regions. They have reported only little evidence of treatment, unfortunately.