MPs urged to take more action against INNS

Research shows that the threat from invasive non-native species (INNS) is growing and causing a huge impact on  biodiversity, increasing the risk of flooding and costing the UK billions of pounds each year. Biosecurity measures can be adopted to prevent the introduction and spread of INNS. INNS, or invasive alien species, are those that are … Read more

Stop the spread of Invasive Species

It’s national Invasive Species Week, 24 – 30 May, and iCASP is joining a campaign to raise awareness of why non native species are a problem and how to deal with them to help protect the environment. Invasive species are one of the top threats to global diversity and cost the British economy over £2 … Read more

Meet Dr Janet Richardson – proud winner of Water Woman Award 2021 (Societal Impact)

A prestigious award has been won by Dr Janet Richardson, an Impact Translation Fellow with iCASP, for both her achievement in the world of research and power to inspire other women. On International day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) she was amongst those honoured with the Water Woman Award 2021.  Dr Janet … Read more

Going global with invasive non native species

On 28 October, Dr Alison Dunn, lead academic on iCASP’s Invasive Non Native Species (INNS) project gave a keynote presentation at the International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species about the growing problem of invasives, and the work she is doing to address this. Because of the growing threat that some invasive species pose to our … Read more

Getting research in to Parliament

On the iCASP office wall, amongst lists of current and developing projects, year planners and maps there is a brightly coloured poster about getting research in to parliament.  As iCASP is all about achieving impact from existing environmental science we do a range of activities to ensure iCASP’s work gets into parliament. Below is a … Read more

Dealing with freshwater invaders

Workshop to design invasive species project

Hard pressed local authorities in Yorkshire are to get some support from iCASP  in dealing with the spread of watery invaders such as Giant Hogweed, a plant that causes long-term skin burning.

Last year’s costs for removing Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed from the Rivers Aire and Don was over a hundred thousand pounds. Although Yorkshire is currently largely free of Floating Pennywort, which clogs up waterways, costs of large infestations are huge. Once widespread it becomes almost impossible to eradicate this invasive species, resulting in spiralling annual costs of treatment. A new iCASP project will therefore help authorities to act now to prevent any spread.

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