Frilford Heath SSSI, 13th June 2015

By Andrew -
It was a morning of steady rain when eleven of us assembled at Woodhaven to tackle the Himalayan Balsam. We tramped past the meadow and over the bridge to the Natural England site and set up our base at the usual place under the trees. We were pleased to see that the central part of the wood, which we had worked on for the past few years seemed largely clear of Himalayan Balsam and there were a variety of flowers returning including a number of yellow irises, ragged robin and cranesbill. There were some overhanging branches and a tree which seemed to have split down the middle so a some of us set to work to deal with those while the rest of us started on the Himalayan Balsam at the edge of the wood. Of course, it was not yet in flower but some plants were already quite tall and there were numerous small ones waiting to shoot up.

We were glad to stop for our break and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and cake. The weather had not really improved but we pressed on with our task until 12.30, by which time the rain had more or less stopped. There will be plenty to do on our remaining sessions here and we hope for better weather next time.
-Eleanor



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