The River Findhorn is world famous for white water rafting and kayaking, drawing canoeists from across the country to brave the rapids and take in the views of the beautiful, dramatic gorges. However, there is also a specialist team that takes to the water every year for another reason – environmental conservation!
Every year, local Project Officer Elise and a team of volunteers take the plunge (led by white water rafting guides Ace Adventures) to tackle giant hogweed plants in the inaccessible gorges – a tricky but essential mission for our work tackling this invasive non-native plant across the Findhorn catchment.
The team navigate down the rapids with the help of their guides, stopping at regular intervals to hop out and control any giant hogweed found on the riverbanks.
The team took to the water this year armed with spray bottles and a small, foldable hand-held saw to control the invasive and toxic plants. Herbicide is usually applied to giant hogweed using large backpack sprayers, and the monstrous plants are normally cut down with 5m long extendable saws, but these would be tricky to manage on an inflatable boat! So alternatives must be found for the specialist mission.
These control sites have been tackled since the early days on the Initiative and are improving, with very few mature flowering plants now present each year, but it is still essential to control the sites annually to prevent seeding. If any plants are missed and manage to set seed this will impact our work further downstream, as the seeds will be washed down by the water and could infest new areas.
As always, thank you to our expert guides Ace Adventures, and to volunteers Caroline and Gallia for their help on this mission!
You can read more about this work, including interviews with Elise and Caroline, in the Press and Journal.
