Balsam Bashing

Himalayan Balsam. Photo: ceridwen

Many of you will know, over the past years there has been a concerted effort to control the Himalayan balsam in Thornton Woods nature reserve, through which Clatter Brook runs before joining the River Dibbin. This year a wider area has been tackled.

Over the past 3 years there has been a decrease in its density, and we have been able to clear the whole of the wood and the top wood west of the M53. Alas one cannot find every single plant and so they will grow and seed. This work has been carried out by day and evening tasks by Wirral Conservation Volunteers and work parties organised by the Wildlife Trust. Thornton Brook which runs through Foxes Wood is looked after by Tom. Further down the Dibbin is Dibbinsdale nature reserve where the Friends of Dibbinsdale volunteers and Alan the ranger have been doing their bit there. However, for successful control you need to go upstream as far as possible to get to, or close to the source, as the seeds are mainly carried by water.

This year we have forged upsteam of Thornton Woods for the first time for a few years. We gained permission from Wirral Hospitals Trust to go into the Clatterbridge Hospital grounds and clear the brook before it is culverted under the buildings. We did find some isolated plants there. We then tried to identify from maps and a site visit where the brook emerges from the Northern boundary of the hospital grounds to go across the fields in a small valley/ ditch towards Brimstage. This was complicated by the fact there are two brooks marked on the map, but we could only find one at the hospital. Anyway then we asked for and got permission from Leverhulme Estates to walk this stretch of the brook. We expected to be able to to walk and deal with any balsam between Brimstage and the hospital in a morning. Unfortunately heavy balsam growth and chocking vegetation in the deep ditch here impeded progress somewhat. It took over an hour and we were not even halfway to the hospital. We did not realise the course of the brook at this point narrows to a deep ditch in places. We need to go back in the winter to do a further survey of the brook, and find other access points. The main point is we are now pushing up upstream on the Clatter, which should in the future make things easier for control in the reserves downstream. We are getting to the end of the balsam pulling season as lot of it is flowering now.

Tim Gannicliffe