Island Life Magazine Ltd October/ November 2012 | Page 77

COUNTRY LIFE

Isla nd
teen a gers ‘go
green’ at Fort
Victoria
The Footprint Trust has praised over 30
youngsters aged 15 to 17 from Island
schools, who gave up a day of their holiday
to work at Fort Victoria Country Park.
The teenagers were taking part in the
much-heralded National Citizen Service
Programme, led on the Island, by the IW
Rural Community Council. The IW Council’s
Countryside Rangers helped make the event
possible with The Trust, providing tools and
assisting the Rangers with supervision of
the young people.
Speaking for The Footprint Trust Ray
Harrington-Vail said: “The National Citizens
Service programme gives young people a
real chance to try different activities, make
new friends and learn new skills. These
young people were a credit to themselves,
their families and schools. They worked
hard and had a good time.
“The young people improved pathways
at the Fort, making access easier for those
visiting and also assisted in helping to
improve the revetments to protect habitats
from erosion.” www.footprint-trust.co.uk

Back to nature
One of our summer jobs was to treat
Japanese Knotweed in various locations
around the Island.
This led us to tackle other invasive
weeds, and we recently spent a couple
of days helping Natural Enterprise begin
the process of controlling and removing
Himalayan (Indian) Balsam from the river
banks at Blackwater.
What is a very beautiful and highly
attractive flower to bees, is also a
notifiable weed, extremely invasive and
potentially detrimental to the pollination of
other plants as the bees will spend more
time around the balsam’s flowers.

A cou ntry ma n's dia ry

It is an interesting plant as, when
ready, or with the slightest of touch the
seed capsules explode, scattering the
black seeds up to seven metres away.
If you have any, you can help Natural
Enterprise by pulling and either burning
or composting it in a confined area, and
it can then be controlled over the next
couple of years.
Having been spoilt by a month of dry
weather, we decided it was at last firm
enough to venture into the woods, and
extract the timber that had been cut last
season.
It wasn’t long before we realised we

had been lulled into a false sense of ‘at
last-ness’! With a combination of heavy
rain and gusting winds, some of the trees
decided to come out in support of their
recently fallen comrades. It made what
had become a slow operation, because
of a summer’s growth, even slower, by
blocking just about every access we had
into the woods. Another day of cutting in
the rain, leaves us waiting for some more
sunshine, in the hope for some more ‘at
last’ time.

www.visitislandlife.com

77