Last of the summer balsam

Final pulling work party of the season with Stroud Valleys Project and we headed over to the other side of the bank near the location of the smaller Fromebridge reserve.

Predictably, we found absolutely loads of balsam across the whole boundary with the motorway which I doubt has been addressed for many years. However, we chose to focus on the river bank as stopping the seed going downstream this season gives the biggest impact for the effort.

We worked pretty methodically starting by the motorway bridge, each person takes a 5m width chunk. When that was cleared, you walked downstream to the next available segment. The weather was pretty brutal for the time of year – heavy rain made the whole vegetation soaking and it never really let up much until mid afternoon.

Although there is still much balsam along the banks, it is now mostly turning from flower to seed, so pulling has little effect (it’s an annual plant that will completely disappear by the autumn).

So, the last of this years work parties and we’ll look forward to a different set of tasks with SVP over the remainder of the summer.