Last week was all about Himalayan Balsam. We were working to remove it at the historic Balquhidderock woodland in Bannockburn, near Stirling.
Powered by tea, coffee and many, many biscuits each morning, the guys worked very hard in removing as much Himalayan Balsam form the site as possible. After three days of what can only be described as “plant removal carnage”, it was apparent that a great Balsam massacre had occured at the site, with piles of decaying Himalayan Balsam lying all around us.
Despite this task becoming a little bit tedious, especially towards the end of the week, the group put in a tremendous amount of effort and managed to free up large areas of woodland from the dreaded Balsam. However, as we cleared an area we continued to find even more Balsam to destroy. Where will it end?
The best part of the week was the warm and dry weather, which certainely contributed to our extraordinary efforts and helped to keep up our morale too. On most previous occasions when we have been out it had always been raining at this site but this week we were lucky. It was a very welcome change.
Now, all that is left to say is that we are all now seasoned Himalayan Balsam removers and with a more healthy respect and understanding of the invasiveness and capabilities of this plant. Hopefully, we will succeed in eradicating this species from this site but it will not be this year.
One final thing, if Balsam removal was an Olympic sport, we would certainely win gold!!!!