graduate_owner
Established Member
Hi everyone.
Yesterday I posted a topic about litter. Today it's another topic that is really bugging me, and that is the spread of Himalayan Balsam. This is an invasive plant that is second only to Japanese Knotweed on the Environment Agency's list of unwanted plants. Local councils are obliged (or used to be, anyway) to clear ragwort from roadside verges etc., although there's plenty of the stuff on roadsides around here. However Himalayan Balsam it seems has no such status. The stuff just goes rampant, especially on river banks. There may be one plant this year, but next year it's literally hundreds.
The reason for this posting is not just to rant about it. It's to ask if anyone knows of an organisation that may be interested in dealing with it. Apparently there was an initiative near Llanilar (Aberystwyth) this year where local volunteers were clearing it, but there are issues (safety regarding roadside traffic and rivers, insurance, rights of way over private property etc). I get loads growing in the river bank at the bottom of my field and I can literally spend weeks pulling it up. Every year I pull up hundreds of plants each day, and it is so easy to uproot the stuff, but any I miss will set seed (as do next door's plants that aren't pulled up at all) and come up again with a vengeance the following year. I can do something about controlling those, but just driving along the road I see patches of it, occupying dozens or hundreds of square metres, all in flower and ready to spread seed by the million.
It would be great if there was some kind of national initiative to deal with it, like some counties do with Rhododendron Ponticum. Our local comprehensive school used to raise money by organising an annual sponsored walk. Apart from raising money, it serves no purpose. A sponsored balsam collection would do a service to the community as well as raise money. But as I said, there are issues. So a national initiative would be the answer.
Does anyone have any ideas?
K
K
Yesterday I posted a topic about litter. Today it's another topic that is really bugging me, and that is the spread of Himalayan Balsam. This is an invasive plant that is second only to Japanese Knotweed on the Environment Agency's list of unwanted plants. Local councils are obliged (or used to be, anyway) to clear ragwort from roadside verges etc., although there's plenty of the stuff on roadsides around here. However Himalayan Balsam it seems has no such status. The stuff just goes rampant, especially on river banks. There may be one plant this year, but next year it's literally hundreds.
The reason for this posting is not just to rant about it. It's to ask if anyone knows of an organisation that may be interested in dealing with it. Apparently there was an initiative near Llanilar (Aberystwyth) this year where local volunteers were clearing it, but there are issues (safety regarding roadside traffic and rivers, insurance, rights of way over private property etc). I get loads growing in the river bank at the bottom of my field and I can literally spend weeks pulling it up. Every year I pull up hundreds of plants each day, and it is so easy to uproot the stuff, but any I miss will set seed (as do next door's plants that aren't pulled up at all) and come up again with a vengeance the following year. I can do something about controlling those, but just driving along the road I see patches of it, occupying dozens or hundreds of square metres, all in flower and ready to spread seed by the million.
It would be great if there was some kind of national initiative to deal with it, like some counties do with Rhododendron Ponticum. Our local comprehensive school used to raise money by organising an annual sponsored walk. Apart from raising money, it serves no purpose. A sponsored balsam collection would do a service to the community as well as raise money. But as I said, there are issues. So a national initiative would be the answer.
Does anyone have any ideas?
K
K
