Mark retired a few years ago and was keen to volunteer for an organisation that included active participation. The SISI project caught his eye for several reasons - it was local to his area of the Spey, involved active control work and, most importantly, allowed Mark to get involved with giant hogweed control.

“Giant hogweed was a personal concern for me as I had some invading my stream at the bottom of my garden. As it happens, the stream was also ideal for a bit of mink trapping, so I have a mink trap on a floating raft in there too.

I thoroughly enjoy the days out spraying hogweed (or half days sometimes as I’m old and tired) and I had my first mink catch recently.  The days out spraying are fun and Karen keeps us organised and enthused. Her lunchtime coffee and biscuits are worth the effort alone!  It’s fine to help make a difference and killing hogweed is just plain fun.”