On 22 and 23 July a working party was arranged by Canal & River Trust to tackle the Himalayan balsam at Melbourne. The land on the west side of the basin is owned by the Carstairs Countryside Trust and their cooperation was obtained so that the working party could tackle the whole area.
Good progress was made by the group of five (including one PCAS member) which met on Friday 22nd, but the scale of the task proved daunting, with the balsam growing to well over two metres and forming dense stands which excluded any other plants. As a few of the plants were starting to “pop” and release their seeds, the timing of the working party could have been earlier in the month but communication issues and Covid had prevented CRT from doing this. Even so, the work done should help to restrict some of next year’s growth.
News is awaited about numbers and progress on the Saturday. Next year hopefully we’ll be able to meet up earlier and more often to tackle the plants.