Sarratt Wildlife Volunteers
Sunday 12th was a perfect June morning, not too hot, sunny with fluffy white clouds above. The Foxgloves and Red Campion were blooming, birds were singing and it was a pleasure to be out.
We were at Commonwood on a search and destroy mission. The little alien plant, the Small Balsam threatens to take over parts of the Common,
smothering all in its path. With its explosive seed distribution method, it can throw its seeds far and wide and soon cover an alarming area. Our aim
is to prevent this happening. Each June we look for and root out this plant before it blooms and seeds. It looks so harmless, only about a foot tall at its best, and with small yellow flowers but we are not fooled! It needs to go before it takes over as it has done in acres of Whippendell Woods.
We soon found many plants in the area to the left of the car park, but some were still so small and hiding amongst the brambles that we decided we
have to go back in July to try to get rid of those. Each year we remove all we can find and the next year some are back, which goes to show we only
need to miss a few and the takeover begins.
After our refreshment break we moved on to the area around Quickmoor Pond, which we worked on last year. Quite a lot of ash was left after the
bonfires, so we cleared this to allow the grass to recover.
More help is always needed so just turn up or contact Dawn for more details – 01923 267071
or [email protected].
Dawn Pitts