The Big Pull

Foolhardily, I challenged @TimSykesEA to a Himalayan balsam pulling day on July 2nd. I then asked if Richard Weaver, Keep Wales Tidy's Cardiff Officer if he'd like to join in too. So at 6 pm anyone is invited to come along to Henllys LNR to see if we can pull up loads of Himalayan balsam and make the tallest pile, hopefully not finishing last, the more the merrier. Just bring gloves and suitable clothing.

Meet: 6 pm July 2nd 2013.
Location: Car Park off Birch Grove, NP44 6EP.

1st Henllys Scouts will be coming along too and now they know what they are doing after Monday's efforts, we may well get a bigger pile this time for pics see here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjG93kWv .

 

 

 

Next Event, this Thursday 13th June @7pm and some other useful information.

Thursday 13th June at 7 pm, meet Car Park off Birch Grove, NP44 6EP.

Event: Himalayan Balsam pull
Date: Thursday 13th June at 7pm.
Meeting Point: Henllys LNR Car Park

We'll be tackling Himalayan balsam for the first time this year and looking at where we have had success over the last 4 pulling seasons.

Bring gardening gloves if you have them, sturdy good gripped shoes or wellies/waders if going into the stream.

Contact Chris on 07824504813 or friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com for more details or if you are planning on joining us.

The pond is starting to look pretty good regarding pond life, the picture shows a beautiful blue darter dragonfly, which almost met its Waterloo to a sparrow. The lower pond also has tadpoles, late stage, and loads of different types of diving and skating beetles.

 

There are lots of nice flowers around at the minute to take our minds off the Himalayan balsam which is creeping up in height in many places of the reserve. One such plant is ragged robin, which really enjoys having its feet wet.

 

There are some places which are recovering very nicely after our previous 4 seasons of pulling the balsam and they are looking pretty good:

The lower streams of the reserve look particularly bad this year and we may concentrate on these sections this year, hopefully with some help from Coed Eva and Henllys Church in Wales Primary Schools and the Henllys Scouts. However, anyone is welcome to come along and either join in with us, or pull some up on your own. Just remember, pull it up cleanly, bend it in half, Chineese burn it and put it in as big a pile as possible.

 

Iolo's plea about the Welsh countryside

If you have a little time, watch Iolo's talk. It is great to hear someone talking about something that they care so much about without fear of the political repercussions. Embedded from http://youtu.be/FnJQjtvngqA



We are so lucky to have our nature reserve on our doorstep. We have a big old wet meadow here, and you can see the orange tip butterflies fluttering around at the minute. We are too small and have too many dogs for nesting skylarks or lapwings, but you can sit on a bank and watch and listen to the birds and you may get a dark bush cricket jump on you. I hope you are enthused as I was after watching this clip.

Friends of Henllys LNR do our bit for Clean Coasts Week

3 volunteers from Henllys Local Nature Reserve (LNR) picked up 9 bags of litter, a Garden incinerator converted from a gas cylinder, a car rim amongst other things as part of Clean Coasts Week.

We continued upstream from where we went last month and found loads of stuff, some dumped over people's fences and others washed from street litter in the rain. We pulled out several small rugs and some broken chicken feeders. However, most of the stuff we pulled out was very similar to that which we found at events on the coast in Monmouthshire and down on the banks of the River Rumney in Cardiff earlier this week for Clean Coasts Week. This includes, plastic bottles, crisp packets, sweet wrappers and plastic. So if does flow downstream past our reserve and eventually down into the sea at Newport.

The 16 mile route of litter (& Himalayan balsam seeds) from Henllys Local Nature Reserve to the coast (Map can be viewed in more detail here: http://goo.gl/maps/tC2D1 

A selection of photos from the 110 events undertaken across Wales' coastline for Clean Coasts Week can be viewed here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjF2rzXc

After our litterpick, we decided to look at the progress of some of our winter activities and we were really impressed. All of our willow defences have started to sprout including the big one across the chasm.

Our sprouting willow defences to limit erosion

 Interestingly, growing from the backfilled material I dug out from the blocked culvert, mainly sand, was loads of Himalayan balsam. Moreover, where the drainage teams from the council had desilted the culvert and dumped it on top of our willow defences, these are also packed full of Himalayan balsam.

balsam growing in the silt

This clearly demonstrated the dangers of moving river bed materials which are contaminated with balsam seeds. There is also balsam growing where we have never seen it before and it could only have got there by the treads of shoes or dogs feet. It also demonstrates the vicious circle of Himalayan balsam. It grows by stream edges, outcompetes other vegetation, sets seeds and the shallow roots means more erosion and even worse, this eroded silt is heavily laded with Himalayan balsam seed and the problem escalates and spreads elsewhere.

On a positive note, the mini-orchard provided by Gwent Wildlife Trust is looking really good. Even the one which Cllr. Burnett taped back together with electrician's tape is in leaf. The varieties are as follows: St. Cecilia, Birith mawr, Machen & Cissy more can be read about these here: http://www.applewise.co.uk/leaflets/pdf/variety.pdf

Tricia's husbands electrician tape saves one of the apple trees and is in leaf.

All of our pictures from today can be looked at here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjF9nxNC

Cleaner Coasts Week and what we can do to help.

Friends of Henllys Local Nature Reserve are joining in with Cleaner Coasts Week 2013 with a stream clean up on Sat 18th May at 10am. We are meeting on the reserve's car park, just off Birch Grove, NP44 6EP.

What do we have to do with the coast? Well, the water which passes through the Henllys Local Nature Reserve ends up in the sea, some 16 miles downstream from us after passing along the Nant y Milwr, Dowlais Brook, Afon Llwd and finally River Usk, passing by several CCW events which are taking place in Newport. So even though we are not on the coast itself, we are doing our bit to help clean up our coast. You are more than welcome to join in with us. Please let us know via friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com and just bring wellies and gloves. All other equipment will be provided.

The trail of litter from the streams that pass through Henllys LNR to sea water is shown in the map below, you may have to zoom out a bit.


View Cleaner Coasts Week Sat 18th May event in a larger map