Upstream survey.

Last week we had a look at the field behind St Peter's Church. There were a few plants growing but no large clumps apart from one near to Church Road on the opposite bank of the river. There were also a few visible behind the houses on Mill Lane.

Today, Monday, I took a stroll upstream. I cut an access path (Start of path) through the undergrowth down to the river downstream of Black Rocks. In previous years this area has had quite a lot of balsam scattered amongst the undergrowth. This year I saw only a few plants. The opposite bank did have a few and there seemed to be more on the field edge behind.

I then walked upstream and waded across to the group of little islands upstream of Black Rocks. Two years ago when we first cleared the area it was densely colonised by balsam. Last year were fewer, and this year there were just a few isolated plants. However the field edge on the opposite bank was still bad, acting as a reservoir for recolonisation.