BEAR ESSENTIALS The Newsletter of : -
IWA Warwickshire Branch Issue No. 49 – August 2017.
A Snatch In Time Saves Nine:
Our past and present chair-holders leading members and local residents in this worthwhile exercise. Photo by Greta Russell
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On Sunday July 9 , we undertook our third ‘balsam bash’ – when members, and local residents, returned to Myton Fields in Warwick to tackle the problem of Himalayan Balsam on the banks of the river Avon. Unchecked, this invasive species can crowd out native plants, and lead to bank-erosion. As other branches elsewhere in the country have found, these repeat ‘attacks’ are having an effect, and the ‘infected’ areas are usually found to be stabilising, and then reducing, and that is certainly the case here in Warwick – where this time we filled a mere 43 rubbish bags with our ‘harvest’. By next year it is hoped that an area of the riverbank that to date has been unavailable to us will become so – and, with your help, our work to eradicate this pernicious plant can continue. This will not only benefit the Warwick riverfront in the short to medium term, but in the longer term the Avon’s bank-sides further downstream. However, we should not confine ourselves to one ‘group-attack’ on one specific date in the summer. With guidance from environmental specialists, the Association is launching a wider response to the problem – under the ‘strapline’ “PullSnapStomp”. When boating on, or walking alongside our waterways – whether as individuals, families, or larger groups, we can also . help to tackle the problem. To find out more about Himalayan Balsam and how you, your family and friends can contribute to our evolving campaign please visit the Association’s website www.waterways.org.uk/himalayanbalsam Non-waterway friends often ask me “Why do you do it ?”, [‘It’ being get involved with, and spend so much time on and around, our inland waterways]. For years I’ve thought about ‘it’, and now I’ve come up with the answer “Because it’s pleasure with a purpose”. Whether we are pulling up Himalayan Balsam, sign-writing on finger-posts, or anything else related to securing the future of our inland waterways, we are doing something that has long-term worth, and doing it in the company of like-minded individuals who soon become friends. So, if you’d like to do just that little bit more for your waterways, and make new friends in the process, then come and join us in our on-going pursuit of pleasure with a purpose.
Editor:
Ian Fletcher.
A Sign of the Times ? In our April edition we showed images of how our local inland waterways scene has changed over the last 60 years, but here’s an even more rapid change. In mid-January several members of the Lapworth Towpath Taskforce removed the junction’s 28 year old signpost - for Nick Nicholson to give the woodwork some long overdue ‘tlc’. Then Ian Fletcher, Neil Skerry, Sue Roy & John Powell re-painted the arms, and CRT’s Steve Lambert found funds to pay for the manufacture of a steel base-plate for the reassembly. The Taskforce team then replaced the sign in June – just in time to point the way to Stratford for July’s River Festival.
Before and after photos by Nick Nicholson.