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16/05/2011

1.9 billion pounds is spent on tackling invasive species in the UK every year. Also, a look at the effect on wildlife caused by the wildfires which swept across the countryside.

In the UK we spend £1.9 billion a year taming plants, from our native gorse to the imported Japanese knotweed, and controlling pests like rabbits and mink. Trevor Reynolds in the Environment Agency's senior advisor on invasive species The Environment Agency's senior advisor on invasive species says that tackling the problem costs 4.5% of global GDP.

One of Europe's biggest bioethanol plants based on Teesside, is to shut down for a few months because of a lack of demand for its product. The Ensus plant opened last year and uses locally grown wheat to make 400 million litres of bioethanol fuel and also produces animal feed as a by product. Its marketing manager Grant Pearson explained why it was temporarily shutting up shop.

Moira Hickey visits the Torridon Estate in the north-west Highlands of Scotland with Alexander Bennett of the National Trust to see what damage the wildfires have done to the landscape and to the Trust's plans for the area.

Presenter: Charlotte Smith. Producer: Ruth Sanderson.

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12 minutes