On 16 and 17 September, the Scottish Government hosted the British-Irish Council (BIC) Invasive Species Work Sector in Perthshire. The Scottish Invasive Species Initiative were invited to present at the event and host the group on a site visit to the River Almond.
The first day of the visit included presentations from several invasive species projects and researchers: Dr Peter Robertson of Newcastle University and Professor Dan Tompkinson of the University of Auckland, Gail Turney from Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels, and Sarah Sankey from the Orkney Native Wildlife Project.
Our Project Manager, Callum Sinclair, was invited to present and introduced the group to the Initiative’s work tackling invasive non-native plants and American mink on a landscape-scale along rivers and water bodies in northern Scotland.
On the second day, officials visited the River Almond, just outside Perth, where they were joined by Mark Purrmann Charles (Project Officer for North Tayside) and Jane Hamilton (Volunteer and Communications Officer). The project team spoke with the group about our work controlling giant hogweed and Japanese knotweed along the river, with the help of volunteers. We were pleased to see the considerable reduction in giant hogweed abundance on the site since work began in 2023.
We were also able to demonstrate the ‘smart traps’ used in our American mink control project and discuss how remoti devices enable us to maximise trapping efforts while minimising the burden on volunteers. Our volunteer network is essential to effectively co-ordinate mink control on a landscape scale.
The British-Irish Council was established under the landmark 1998 Belfast / Good Friday Agreement which brought peace to Northern Ireland. The BIC, which falls under strand three of the agreement (concerning east-west relationships), was established “to promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the peoples of these islands”. The Council does this by collaborating on the shared priorities of its member administration.
The BIC comprises the Government of Guernsey, the Government of Ireland, the Isle of Man Government, the Government of Jersey, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government, the UK Government and the Welsh Government.
Find out more: https://www.britishirishcouncil.org/
