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2021 in Review

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Despite continuing restrictions last year, the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative still managed to achieve a great deal – with the support of our partners and volunteers. The headline facts and figures are illustrated in this infographic and below are some reflections on the year from Project Manager Callum Sinclair.

2021 infographic

“We’re really proud of the achievements of the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative in 2021 – a year when the coronavirus pandemic continued to limit many activities, but also when the benefits of being in the outdoors, volunteering and socialising safely with others were never more important. 

We maintained our extensive mink monitoring and control network thanks to the contributions of more than 300 dedicated volunteers.  Our team and partners delivered a large invasive non-native plant control programme thanks to more than 460 volunteers days to keep giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam and American skunk cabbage in check across many 100s of km of river bank.  Away from the practical work we went (largely) online to deliver more than 175 school and college sessions to 3690 students. We also found the time to deliver 41 walks and talks to more than 1300 people, write 10 new biosecurity plans, support 27 volunteers gain new formal qualifications and encouraged the use of our ‘Alien Detectives’ education resources in 33 schools.

But, our project is more than just facts and figures – it’s all about the people.  The personal contributions of our brilliant volunteers help us tackle invasive non-native species across almost 1/3rd of mainland Scotland.  In total those volunteers gave some 3,505 days to the project in 2021 – the equivalent of an extra 17 full time people in our team!

So, we’d like to say a massive thank you to each and every person who made a contribution to the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative in 2021 – we appreciate all the time you’ve given and hope that you are as proud of what you contribute to as we are.  

And, of course, there’s still time to get involved in 2022 - get in touch as we’d love to have you join us this year.”

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The 2021 infographic - and those from previous years - can also be viewed here alongside text summaries.
 

 

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