{"id":4322,"date":"2025-02-03T10:28:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T10:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/?p=4322"},"modified":"2025-02-03T10:32:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T10:32:21","slug":"clearing-himalayan-balsam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/clearing-himalayan-balsam\/","title":{"rendered":"Clearing Himalayan Balsam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Himalayan Balsalm is a widespread invasive species in Britain. It is very damaging, causing riverbank erosion, and forming dense stands that increase the likelihood of flooding and reduce or prevent native plants, as well as negatively impacting other biodiversity (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wildlifetrusts.org\/wildlife-explorer\/wildflowers\/himalayan-balsam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more information from the Wildlife Trusts<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It competes with native plants, drawing pollinators away from them. Himalayan Balsam produces and disperses seeds very vigorously, which makes it very invasive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the ideas from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Gwyrdd-Ni-Dyffryn-Peris-Action-Plan_Eng.pdf\">Dyffryn Peris Climate Action Plan<\/a> was &#8220;Start mapping the invasive species (e.g. Himalayan Balsam) and who is doing what about them already&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/355029923_394275746615141_5900839668285036015_n-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4296 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1024px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1024\/1024;\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was part of the wider D\u0175r a Thir (Water and Land) working group, who have the following aims:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li style=\"font-size:17px\">Increase knowledge of what is here already, identifying and mapping habitats, biodiversity and invasive species to guide our approach.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Take a place by place approach, avoiding \u2018blanket solutions\u2019 and working with landowners to create a patchwork of responses suited to place.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Support the flourishing of habitats, species of plants, trees + animals in the right places for biodiversity, flood management and food production.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Himalayan Balsam is being mapped with the &#8220;INSS Mapper&#8221; app, community leaders are being trained and we are organising regular &#8216;pulling&#8217; days over the spring and summer each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We have been working with landowners, the community and schools in Dyffryn Peris to work towards these goals. Voluntary efforts are focusing on high ground near Afon Hwch and Afon Caledffrwd to start with, and working down from those places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In April 2024, Himalayan Balsam Clearing training was organised with Cymdeithas Eryri (Snowdonia Society) for 9 people to learn how to lead clearing groups safely and effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/jac-y-neidwr_0.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here is a video from June 2024 with the children of Ysgol Dolbadarn, Llanberis who filled 4 tonne sacks of Balsam!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Want to be a part of this? Contact Lowri on <a href=\"mailto:peris@gwyrddni.cymru\">peris@gwyrddni.cymru<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Himalayan Balsam is a widespread invasive species in Britain. One of the aims of the Dyffryn Peris D\u0175r a Thir group was to start mapping the invasive species and who is doing what about them already. Several clearing sessions have already been organised thanks to community volunteers, schools, and the support of Cymdeithas Eryri and local landowners. Training was organised for those wanting to lead clearing groups in April 2024, and more clearing days will be organised in future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-4322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dyffryn-peris-projects","tag-nature-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4322"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4329,"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4322\/revisions\/4329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gwyrddni.cymru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}