COUNTRY LIFE
Protecting the countryside
Gift to Nature is responsible for a variety of conservation sites
around the Island, it is their mission to not only care for the
Island’s wildlife but encourage everyone to get out and explore
our fantastic countryside.
T
he Island’s Plant Positive project
needs help to tackle one of the
most troublesome non-native
plant species on our rivers this summer.
Volunteers can help by coming along
to an organised ‘pulling session’ or
alternatively, it’s an activity that can be
carried out as you walk along the Island’s
footpaths and cycleways.
Many of our rivers and streams
(especially in the east of the Island)
will almost uniformly be covered in the
Barbie doll pink blossom of the nonnative plant Himalayan balsam from
May through to September. As well
as out-pollinating and out-shading
our native flora and threatening the
extraordinary biodiversity of our river
habitats it dies back in winter, leaving our
riverbanks bare and vulnerable to erosion
and increased flooding. The Hampshire
and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust report
that this loss of plant diversity and bank
erosion is also contributing significantly
to the decline of one of the UK’s rarest
mammals, the water vole.
Last year a fantastic team of volunteers
turned out again and again to tackle this
pink menace. Over 155 tonnes of the
plant were removed. Whilst volunteers
are always welcome, there are also
simple steps that everyone can take to
help with removal:
• Always pull up from the root – it is
surprisingly easy to do so.
• If you do snap the plant accidentally,
make sure that everything above its first
stem node is removed – otherwise it will
grow again threefold!
• Place any plants removed away from
the footway – they will compost really
quickly.
• Don’t attempt to pull plants from late
July on - they may be ready to explode
their seeds and we don’t want to help
them to spread.
If you would like to give a hand
Himalayan Balsam-pulling this summer,
please contact Carol Flux on 01983
201563 or carol.flux@naturalenterprise.
co.uk. No experience is necessary as
training will be given on the day.
www.visitilife.com
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