2025-report

2025 End of Season Report

Rivers Tyne & Esk Again Clear of Flowering Plants!

This year we can finally say that:

NO SEEDS were added to riverside seedbanks!

On the Tyne every visible plant was dealt with, and only a handful of flowering plants appeared, which were all properly dealt with.

The infestation on the Esk is a hundred times worse, but by the end of July every flowering plant near the river had been treated.

All due to the painstaking work of the many landowners and the spotters.

Special mention goes to Julia J for organising the Esk spotters, and for miles of surveys. But especially to James Wyllie, who rallies all the landowners and continues to perform every other role too!

Thank You

Click on any picture below to see more

Visualise the great progress on both the Tyne and Esk

See the full statistics, and the steady improvment over the years

It’s not just on the rivers – it’s all over the place!

Great Progress – River Tyne

  • For the 7th 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 15km stretch between Pencaitland and East Linton we found only 3 plants. 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.
Slide to see the difference on the Tyne by the end of the season!

Great Progress – River Esk

  • With tens of thousands of plants it is a daunting task. But after 5 years of effort, nearly all areas are now being actively treated by their landowners, including Eskmills, Musselburgh golf course, Buccleuch Estates, and Sainsbury’s at Straiton. On our green-tick surveys, we found flowering plants in only a few areas. But removed them all riverside.
  • In Musselburgh it has spread well away from the river, infesting the woods around Eskmills, old Edenhall hospital, Tescos, and even the Health Centre!
  • The new pockets of Hogweed that Ian found last year upstream of Lasswade have all been checked and been treated
  • The map below shows every location (some with many plants) that was found during the year, and again after the green-tick survey. Move the slider to see before/after. What a massive difference!
All Known Plants on the Esk (further upstream is clear!)

Statistics

River Tyne

  • 93 km of river & tributaries
    • 20 km Significant GH
    • 15km Isolated Plants
    • 45 km Very Unlikely
    • 15 km Completely Clear!
  • Plants
    • 129locations
    • 227 plants
    • 12 flowering

This is our 7th year on the Tyne and its main tributary the Bellyford Burn. You can really see a difference in the last couple of years – down to a quarter of the volume when we started.

River Esk

On the Esk, its our 5th year in Musselburgh, and the 4th covering the whole Esk catchment. This includes Eskmills, Inveresk, Dalkeith Country Park, the North Esk up to Penicuik, the South Esk up to Gorebridge, the Dean/Park Burn up to its source in Straiton, and many smaller tributaries.

  • 125 km of river & tributaries
    • 30 km Significant GH
    • 20 km Isolated clumps
    • 40 km tbd, but unlikely
    • 40 km Completely clear
  • Plants
    • 900 locations, each with…
      • x1 small upto x100 flowering
    • 20,000? plants

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)

Scottish Power have been rigorously treating the Smeaton area for several years, and it is now well under control. B&Q started seriously this year and have made great strides. Well done both!

Some areas are really quite serious, eg:

  • B&Q (very bad)
  • Millerhill (very bad)
  • Old Craighall
  • Railway Embankments (very bad)
  • Seton Sands
  • Smeaton Electricity Substation
  • Straiton/Sainsbury’s

Click the map to see the current status or elcv.org.uk/HogweedMapLothian