Pulling up the balsam
Met up with the Stroud Valleys Project team at Fromebridge Mill for a day of pulling up Himalayan Balsam from the river bank. This is the ideal time of year, before it goes to flower, or even has grown all that tall.
This is a very destructive, invasive and non-native species. It crowds out other plant life on the bank, it disappears completely in winter which furthers bank erosion and the bees gorge on the nectar at the expense of other native species.
The only effective way to remove it is to pull the complete plant before it sets seed. Fortunately, it is very shallow rooted and comes out easily.
It is mostly water, and has the texture of celery. You snap it in two, discard it anywhere and it’ll be gone in a day or two of sun.
There were six of us and we tackled about 200 meters of one side of the bank next to the Mill. This is also an area of known water voles, so we had to be careful not to disturb their habitat. We found one section where there was a suspected water vole burrow and latrine, so we left the balsam in place. We’ll return there in July and clip the flower heads from that section.
