Ditching the balsam invasion
WHEN I told a friend that I was off on a day’s balsam bashing, he wasn’t best pleased.
For this friend has honey bees and those bees appear to love our pink, giant plant that has invaded vast areas of our country.
My argument is that, before Himalayan balsam, we had carpets of wild flowers which both domesticated and wild bees love.
Also, in areas where this invasive plant has grown, it has been recorded that there are 75 per cent fewer spiders and other beetles and bugs are not as common.
Each plant can spit out 800 seeds to be carried on the wind and by flowing water.
To make matters worse, when it grows along streams and rivers, its shallow roots weaken the banks.
There was a dipper’s nest close to my home which has vanished since Himalayan balsam started to grow there.
I was given first-hand experience of the extent of balsam intrusion when I turned up at a local cricket club to take part in a work party, with a wonderful team from Swinton Insurance in Manchester.
The ditch we were clearing looked lush with all kinds of plants – and the odd pink flower of the Himalayan balsam poking out of grass and nettles.
We lowered ladders and climbed down into the deep flora, wellies dipping into a foot of dark water.
It was only when I was down there that I realised the full extent of the problem.
All along the bottom of his quarter-mile ditch were layers and layers of thick stems among the nettles and bramble, smothering anything else in its path.
Himalayan balsam is fairly easy to pull out because of those shallow roots and as you tugged you could see the bank collapsing.
There were no native flowers growing under these monsters.
My Swinton Insurance colleagues pulled out a huge specimen, definitely more than 10 feet tall.
Once you have tugged them up you need to carry them out of the area.
If you leave them they are likely to grow from the nodes that appear along their stems.
So we piled the huge amount of balsam we had pulled and then carried it up the ladders to the top of the ditch to be removed later.
It was pretty exhausting: the Swinton team, my colleague Ian Wright and various volunteers didn’t stop until we had cleared the ditch of balsam.
Some areas of the ditch were deeper than others, and there were hidden trip-points – I fell over up to my chest in water.
I wasn’t the only one, but it didn’t dampen our spirits.
One reason for this was the buffet lunch provided by the Rufford Women’s Institute, what a spread!
The home-made maltloaf was my favourite.
I really think we made a difference: balsam and other work parties are available to companies throughout the year.
On the gloomy side, I might not get any honey from my pal this year.
IN our weekly TimeTrip feature, we take a look back at events in Rossendale in years gone by.
Each week we will showcase a selection of pictures taken by Rossendale Free Press photographers.
This week, thanks to former Rossendale Free Press photographer Phil Taylor, we have more from the borough’s club scene over the years.
This week’s photographs shows two nights out at the popular Rawtenstall nightlife spot Qube in 2004.