Tackling Himalayan Balsam

This morning I led a work party of local volunteers in tackling Himalayan Balsam, an invasive plant species becoming increasingly common and widespread. This is an annual plant that seeds profusely, with seeds lasting in the soil for a couple of years. The aim is to pull the plant up by the roots before it flowers - this prevents further seeding and should reduce the amount of plants coming up the following year. If an area if tackled for several years in a row it can be cleared of balsam completely. In practice, if the nearby and upstream areas are not also tackled, seeds will just drift downstream and reinfect the area. They can of course also be brought in on people's shoes, etc.

The patch we chose to tackle is not on a stream, so in theory if treated it should stay clear. It is along a footpath that runs between Meanwood Valley woods and a new housing development. Some of the volunteers that came to help me belong to local community groups, whilst others are associated with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Volunteers with a large plant just coming into flower

The weather was dull and cool, which was a bit of a blessing as we had to be well clothed to get stuck into undergrowth that was quite prickly and nettley.  Himalayan Balsam is best pulled up from the roots to prevent it shooting up again. The plants are then crushed (by stamping/jumping on them) and then piled as discretely as possible where they rot down quite quickly.  Two of us managed to clear an area just the other side of the fence (pictured), which looked hideous to start with but we managed to blitz it. The rest of the group cleared a large area alongside the footpath.

What is left after a balsam bash is usually quite a barren area, which just proves what a problem this plant is - it basically outcompetes our native plants. And while some people like it because 'it's good for the bees', the bees would be just as appreciative of native flowers growing in its place!

I planned a short session of two hours and this was just enough as it is very tiring work. We retreated to the local pub at noon, where the landlord kindly provided us with tea and sandwiches.

Afterwards I had a walk into the woods with one of the volunteers where she showed me an infestation of American Skunk Cabbage, now lacking the distinctive yellow flowers. The huge leaves looked out of place. The photo opposite probably doesn't do it justice - the leaves were 2-3 feet long and this monstrous plant clearly doesn't naturally belong here. Some seed heads were still present though it looked as though someone had tried to remove some others.  I brought a couple home for dissection and to confirm the identification.

There was also a small clump of Japanese Knotweed by the beck. I have written to the Council to see if they are aware of this and have any plans for treatment.

It was a worthwhile session but I can't help think we have made a tiny dent in a massive problem. Still, every little helps. We have another session on Thursday to finish the area around the estate, and then at least we will have cleared one area and helped spread the word amongst the local groups.

MMU Using a Flora

Last weekend I attended the second of six courses working towards the MMU Certificate in Biological Recording.  Entitled 'Using a Flora' it aimed to give us the tools to identify any plant in the UK, armed with a knowledge of plant anatomy and terminology and using the extensive and (dare I say it) over-complicated floral key written by Stace.

Our tutor Mark was incredibly knowledgeable and patient, and the facilities at the field studies centre at Preston Montford was comfortable and well-catered. The other students were all really friendly and we got on well as a group. This all boded well for an enjoyable course.

Days were long with twelve hours tuition - you certainly get your money's worth on an FSC course!  We typically spent the morning in the lab having lectures and looking at/dissecting various plant specimens. In the afternoons, we had a field trip, visiting three very different but beautiful sites. After dinner, there was an evening session which summarised the day's work and introduced other aspects of botany.

The most difficult part of the course was learning the terminology. The floral key that we used could almost be written in a foreign language. I am sure it would be more accessible to a wider audience, and thus increase an interest in botany, if simpler language were used.  For example, why say 'glabrous' when 'hairless' would do equally well? There also seemed to be more than one word for the same thing!

Despite the language barrier, we all learnt lots, focusing on identifying the top twenty families in the UK. Some of the work was fiddly - dissecting a flower is not so bad in the lab, but virtually impossible in the field when there is a breeze blowing! It is also difficult to distinguish many of the parts of a flower - for example the number of ovules in an ovary - if the flower is very small in the first place. 

Our first field trip was to Colemere, a country park close by.  A relic glacial lake, it has hay meadows and is surrounded by mature woodland. After spending some time in the meadow discussing various species, we took the circular walk through the woods to look at a rare lily on the lake.

The second trip took us to Snailbeach, an old mining area I believe, with some wonderful dry grassland plants. We were lucky enough to see lizards basking on some of the tumbled down walls, but they were too elusive to be photographed.

The third day took us to Llanymynech quarry on the Welsh border, a nature reserve managed by Shropshire Wildlife Trust.  At the bottom of the quarry was a heat trap, and we spent some time keying out plants and admiring the blooms of orchid. We then moved up to the top of the site where there were amazing views of the surrounding countryside.

On the final evening, we had a session on voucher and herbarium specimens. It is part of our assigment to present five good quality herbarium specimens alongside a dichotomous key that we create for ten species.

On the last day, we had a practical test to do. This was open book but in exam conditions. We had ten questions to complete in an hour and a half, which sounds quite easy.  When it took me the first hour to complete three questions, I inevitably went into panic mode. The test wasn't that hard, but I did start stressing when I realised I wouldn't have enough time to complete it and consequently I made some silly mistakes. For a couple of species I discarded the species name I had keyed out to and went for a more familiar one instead ... I should have had faith!  We went over the answers at the end so I am confident I have passed but not as well as I had hoped - I will have to wait until I get the official result to see the true outcome.  It's all a learning experience and in real life I won't be limited to time and be in such false conditions. I'm sure I will get faster with time and practice.

As well as looking at the plants, there was the chance to get involved in some of the other activities at the field centre. I got up early one morning and helped to retrieve the mammal and moth traps.  My next MMU module is on land mammals, so I thought this would give me an insight to what may be involved.  Accompanied by a member of staff from the centre, I retrieved twenty Longworth traps from around the site. Those sited along the A5 embankment were all empty, but we had more luck with those situated around the pond.  We caught several field mice, a bank vole and a field vole. These were all sexed and weighed, then released back into the undergrowth.  The results are submitted to the Mammal Society every week.

The contents of the moth trap were more exciting than when I visited the field centre a few months ago, the warmer weather obviously more conducive to different species.  Some of the more exotic looking species included Elephant Hawk Moth and Garden Tiger. We also caught some Buff-Tips, that look amazingly like a birch twig!  There was a lot of activity around the pond too, with damselflies mating and laying eggs on the vegation.

Overall, this was an very enjoyable and productive five days, and I am sure I will be able to use much of what I have learnt in my future career.

Floral Surveying

In addition to my role on the Invasive Species project at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, I have volunteered to carry out wildflower surveys at several sites across South Yorkshire. The purpose of these is to monitor change in plant composition over several years. This may take place through natural processes at some sites. Other sites are having seeds removed, so its important to ensure this is done sustainably and does not impact the swarth in future years. In contrast, seed is being added to some sites so the species composition is expected to change in those locations.

On Monday I attended a training session with some other volunteers to practice the survey methodology and get up to speed with the species we are likely to come across. The session was held on Maltby Common, which has some areas of magnesian limestone, whilst other parts of the site are quite damp and semi-acidic. This gave rise to an unusual mix of species in some places.

We reviewed 92 species, including some grasses, sedges and rushes.  I had come across many of these before, though it was good to reinforce my knowledge.  We reviewed some of the similar looking species - such as Cat's Ear, Rough Hawkbit (pictured) and Goat's Beard that all look superficially like Dandelion.

We came across two slightly less usual members of the Galium family: Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum) was abundant in some parts of the site, and I found one small specimen of Field Madder (Sherardia arvensis) which has the distinctive galium-whorls but a pale purple rather than the more normal white or yellow flower.

Some of the rarer species we came across were Adder's Tongue and Pepper Saxifrage.  There were also several orchids: Common Spotted orchid, Bee orchid (pictured), Twayblade and the rarer Greater Butterfly orchid though this had finished flowering.

This weekend I attend the MMU's "Using a Flora" course where I hope to reinforce these skills even further, and I'm looking forward to start surveying properly in the next few weeks.

Testing Times

It has been quite a hectic few weeks, with some nerve-wracking assessments taking place.

Last week I attended PA1 and PA6AW training at Askham Bryan College near York. This is a practical qualification that allows me to carry out pesticide spraying using a knap-sack sprayer.  The course was quite intense, and included an element of theory and statutory knowledge, as well as the mechanics of checking equipment, calculating chemical dilutions, and carrying out treatments in a safe and effective manner.  The hardest part was walking in a straight line, spraying and pumping, all in time to make sure you used the correct amount of chemical and had none left over.

On the third day, we had the assessments. PA1 was a multiple choice test taken on computers - we received the results immediately and all passed.  The PA6AW was a one to one test with an external assessor. This was basically an interview with lots of questions asked.  We had to set up and calibrate the sprayer, measure an area, calculate the chemicals to be used, measure them out, carry out the spraying itself and make equipment safe afterwards.  It was quite nerve racking, and as I was the last candidate to be tested I had a long wait, but came away with a good pass :)

I spent all week revising for my Open University exam in Ecosystems, my first Level 3 exam.  It feels as though there is a lot of pressure on, when a whole year's work comes down to a three hour exam!  On Tuesday afternoon I sat down and scribbled away for the full three hours.  I am sure there are some things I missed and a couple more I think I just got wrong, but overall I feel it went well.  Only 9 weeks to wait until the result.  Fingers crossed!