Out of Doors

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Factual: Science & Nature

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Out of Doors: Giant Hogweed, Wildfires, and a Foraged Feast

Giant Hogweed, Wildfires, and a Foraged Feast

BBC Radio Scotland - Out of Doors, Giant Hogweed, Wildfires, and a Foraged Feast

Mark Stephen and Rachel Stewart with stories from the great outdoors.

Sheep have been put in a field right outside a school, to graze on Giant Hogweed which has become a serious problem in parts of Inverurie. It comes after a major study by the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative concluded that the animals are an effective way of tacking the issue. Rachel spoke to pupils at Ursyide Primary, Judith Cox from Aberdeenshire Council and Ian Talboys from Ury Riverside Park.

Mark and Rachel are treated to a three course, fully-foraged feast, with ethnobotanist and research herbalist, Monica Wilde. After a year of eating only food foraged from the land, Monica now runs the Wildbiome Project, which studies the effects of eating a fully wild diet on a person's body. Will this feast be enough to convince our sceptical presenters that wild food can be filling?

Crews have been tackling wildfires across the north of Scotland amidst a serious heatwave. Rachel speaks with Simon McLaughlin, manager of the RSPB Corrimony Reserve, and pupils at Cannich Bridge Primary, about the fall out from the fires. 

The Outdoor Access Trust and Mountaineering Scotland have joined forces to try and raise awareness and funds for mountain path restoration. I went to meet Dougie Baird, CEO of Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland, at a new carpark which has opened up at the foot of Benn A Ghlo in Pitlochry- to talk about the ‘It’s Up to Us’ campaign. 

Scientists at the James Hutton Institute are calling on hillwalkers to get involved in a citizen science project, to create the first map of alpine soil biodiversity across Scotland’s Munros. We speak with Andrea Britton, who is the Alpine Ecologist at the head of the project.

An extract from our midweek podcast sees Rachel out playing a more accessible version of traditional golf, called Park Golf, with Martin Christie from Dunnikier Park Community Golf in Kirkcaldy. 

Rachel heads along to the St Andrews Heritage Museum and Garden, which is located in a 16th century fisher-families cottage, to meet June Baxter. They look ahead to the 25th anniversary of Hidden Gardens, founded by June, where private gardens are opened up to the public to raise money for the St Andrews Preservation Trust.

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