Tidy Wales Week Success and in the papers

Last night saw 5 volunteers pull out 10 bags of litter from Henllys Local Nature Reserve. The pick was part of Keep Wales Tidy's nationwide Tidy Wales Week campaign. Most of the litter was collected from the areas recently flailed by the tractor on the reserve and was mainly found near the hedgeline bordering Henllys Way (i.e. chucked over the hedge). The litterpick lasted around 1.5 hrs and included a mini-tour of the reserve to the 2 newcomers.



Litter along the hedgeline before and after

We dragged all the bags to the other end of the reserve at the car park where TCBC's Street Scene team kindly removed this the next day.


Roller blinds

Chris Partridge from Friends of Henllys LNR said "It is always a good feeling to rid a beautiful site like ours of litter and we are pleased to take part in a much larger project with many other like-minded people across Wales for Tidy Wales Week".

Cllr. Smith-Higgins added "We should consider ourselves very fortunate indeed to have a nature reserve on our doorstep here in Henllys, and extremely lucky to have a group of people who freely give their time to keep it in good order. I was delighted to be able to make a small contribution in time to help out and I would urge others to spare some time as well...litter picking can be quite therapeutic!"

View Tidy WalesWeek Litterpick in a larger map

The team with haul

More pictures from the event can be viewed here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjJh48RA

We were joined by local Henllys Community Council's Cllr. Lawrence Smith-Higgins and a new volunteer Brian. Both came along to the last Friday's consulation on the Welsh Govenment funded Local Authority led Tidy Towns Grant that was recently awarded to the Local Nature Reserve. Their first taste of the grant was wearing a pair of gripper gloves. Previous to this, we all brought our own gloves to events, so this is a great start again for the group. Below shows this week's article in the Pontypool Free Press (please note the telephone number is 07824504813 for getting in touch).

Pontypool Free Press Article (Wed 11th Aug)

Tidy Wales Week tidy up September 16th at 6pm.

We will be taking part in Keep Wales Tidy's nationwide Tidy Wales Week campaign on Mon Sept 16th at 6pm http://www.keepwalestidy.org/tidy-towns/tidywalesweek.

Date: 16th Sept
Time: 6pm
Meet: Car Park off Birch Grove (NP44 6EP)

We'll mainly be clearing some of the rubbish exposed after the recent Welsh Government Tidy Towns Funded opening of the LNR by the tractor flail and bruchcutters. All equipment will be provided. Wear suitable clothing for the weather and ground conditions which may be wet, slippery and uneven. For any more information contact the Friends via friendsofhenlyslnr@gmail.com or 07824504213.

Rubbish exposed after tractor flailing

Final group balsam event

Date: Mon 9th September

Time: 6pm

Location: Meet Car Park off Birch Grove NP44 6EP

Bring: sensible footwear and gardening gloves if you have them.

With the start of school, it is a good chance to get rid of some excess excitement by helping to pull up more Himalayan balsam for perhaps the last time for this year. With help from 1st Henllys Scouts, a massive area mown by tractor as part of the new Tidy Towns funded project and the group and others usual hard work, we have pulled an amazing amount this year, but there is always loads more to do. You are all invited to come along and join in a little bit more in this final push for the LNR.

As Churchill may have put it:

"We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in the football field, we shall fight behind Glan Rhyd and orchard, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength with care, we shall defend our LNR, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the flood plains, we shall fight in the fields and in the streams, we shall fight in the drain grills; we shall never surrender"

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


View Henllys LNR in a larger map

Tel 07824504813
Email: friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com
Twitter: @HenllysLNR

Time is of the essence of balsam

Himalayan balsam is a remarkable plant. During the hot spell earlier in the summer, acres of this plant were wilting almost to the point of saving us from having to treat it, However, and inevitably, the rains did come and the plants have not just bolted, but bolted into flower too. This puts us into the difficult management period of Himalayan balsam control. There is no rule of thumb here, we pull until there is more green than pink. That is when the pink flowers have turned to seed pods. When these pods are young and small, the seeds inside are white small and not viable.

Later on these pods swell, the pods ripen to a black hard shell and them they explode sending the seeds over 5m away. Pulling balsam by hand into massive piles appears to be a great method of control, if you have a load of people. We are now at the point where smashing them down will do less harm than good.....unless we have an Indian summer. Last year, Himalayan balsam plants were still in flower in October, when adjacent plants had already shed all of their seeds. A plant with a smashed stem, this late in the normal season may have time to regrow new flower heads from any left over node, if the weather is on the plant's side.

Some signs of larger green seed pods. The seeds inside were mainly white with some small brown patches

We have started now doing mixtures of pulling by hand and blitzing with a new Tidy Towns funded brushcutter.

Nicola and Tricia out on a Balsam pull

balsam in bramble

balsam with minimum bramble clearance, brushcutter then pull by hand

What we really need is a small army of people to get down as much balsam as possible in the last couple of weeks. This could be tricky and also unlikely, the schools start up again this coming week, so they'll be really busy and the transition is a tough time for the scouts. Still, we can't complain as we have achieved so much this year compared to previous years and it has all been down to forging new partnerships.