Every man Jack!

It was a lot of fun working with schools in Dyffryn Conwy recently to pull the invasive Himalayan balsam, or jac-y-neidiwr as it is known in Welsh (Jack the jumper). Pupils from Ysgol Llangelynnin in Henryd, Ysgol Dyffryn yr Enfys in Dolgarrog and Ysgol Bro Gwydir in Llanrwst collectively pulled up, broke and jumped on many thousands of plants with Cai, Dan and Mary, Snowdonia Society staff. Each Himalayan balsam plant can produce up to around eight hundred seeds, so imagine how many potential new plants they prevented from growing next year! The children impressed us with their eagerness to learn, their enthusiasm and also with their artistic skills: there was a competition to draw the plant on a Western-style ‘Wanted’ poster. Several children won a prize of an invasive species top trumps card game and the overall winner won a blanket in a bag. Thank you to the WaREN project of the North Wales Wildlife Trust for the donation of the card games.

Himalayan balsam grows annually from seed and dies in the winter, but not before each plant produces many hundreds of seeds which explode from their pods at the slightest touch when ripe. It spreads very quickly alongside streams and rivers and on wet ground, so that there can be none in an area but then very many within just a few years. It shades out other plants as it shoots up so fast and pollinators (bees, flies, etc.) flock to its flowers, while other flowers miss out. On riversides, it causes soil to erode into the water when it has killed off shorter plants, as when the balsam dies over winter there are few roots holding the soil together.

Over the last few years, as part of the Carneddau Landscape Partnership, we have been working to help tackle the problem of the increasing and fast spread of Himalayan balsam within the Carneddau area and in settlements around the edge of the Carneddau. We’ve learned where it’s growing through people sending us their sightings and then through the fantastic Amy Greenland of Eryri National Park surveying the Carneddau and mapping it. More and more people are posting their sightings on the INNS Mapper app or website (which feeds data to Cofnod). We have brought volunteers to clear it from a specific site outside Bethesda and from a few sites in Dyffryn Conwy, we have held accredited training workshops to teach people how to tackle it and we have supported local communities to form groups committed to tackling it in their areas.

A lot of time and physical effort is required to successfully clear infestations of Himalayan balsam, although each plant is very easy to pull up. Working strategically is key to success – working together to decide where best to focus efforts until an area is cleared before tackling the next area, whilst still revisiting sites already cleared to look out for any regrowth. It’s been good to help get keen balsam warriors together and great to see new local groups forming in Dyffryn Conwy.  The success of the group at Tal y Bont has encouraged many, after they have virtually cleared balsam from an area by going out regularly to pull it over two summers.

If you are keen to taste the joys of pulling balsam, get in contact with us to find out what’s going on in your area. And, to those who live in or near Bethesda, please come for a day of fun on 20^th August to help pull balsam with us. It’s a free accredited training workshop, which means you can get a certificate (with credits recognised by universities). Whether you’d like the certificate or not, please boost our numbers so we can pull more balsam!

For resources with more information about Himalayan balsam, click here.

Thanks to Lowri Vaughan Hedd, GwyrddNi Community Facilitator for Dyffryn Peris for the title!