Invasive non-native species management: Giant Hogweed

In 2022 Anstruther Improvements Association (AIA) engaged Forth Rivers Trust to map the areas of invasive, non-native Giant Hogweed along the entire length of the Dreel Burn.

The AIA facilitates an INNS management meeting with Forth Rivers Trust, Fife Coast & Countryside Trust, Footprint East Neuk and Fife Council. The group is developing a 10-year strategy and treatment management plan, exploring options available and the costs for treatment methods.

Local volunteers from Footprint East Neuk and Dreelside Woods trialled options for non-chemical treatment, including a programme to dig up the roots of the plants in Dreel Meadows in 2023.

In 2023, the AIA and Fife Coast & Countryside Trust approached Fife Council and Cireco to secure the funding required to treat problem areas; that summer, Forth Rivers Trust (FRT) carried out the first Giant Hogweed treatment along the full length of the burn. Further funding was secured from the same sources in 2024 and 2025, ensuring a second and third year of chemical treatment.

In 2025, FRT noted that the AIA's efforts to deliver successful control over three consecutive years has led to "an overall reduction in plant numbers and, although it was perhaps too early in the season to tell, a reduction in plant sizes too - meaning that fewer plants are likely to seed... there is a real opportunity for eradication with only monitoring required long term".

Giant Hogweed will however require annual treatment over a number of years to eradicate this challenging problem.

For more information on what we are doing about another invasive non-native species, Himalayan Balsam, click here.