Balsam. bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 29th June 2025

Eight of us from MNTV (including a new volunteer) met with Ranger Jon and four Merseyside volunteers on this warm and humid Sunday, to "bash" as much Himalayan balsam as possible before it burst its seed heads and spread further around the wooded area beyond the overflow carpark.

Ranger Jon wasn’t particularly concerned about us tidily piling up the balsam once we’d pulled it up and snapped the lowest node of the stalk off to make it difficult to re-root.  He was more focussed on us pulling up as much as possible so the balsam didn’t have the chance to spread its seeds into the Park.

In smallish groups we went into the wood and found patches of balsam to destroy - which was a very satisfying feeling.  After our morning coffee break we continued the task, moving further into the wood.  By lunchtime we were getting tired and were feeling a lot warmer than when we started.  Most of us were in long sleeves to try and protect our arms from the brambles and nettles and some had caps on too to stop the midges and twigs from trees getting tangled with our hair.

We carried on after lunch and were pleased by the end of the afternoon to see how much balsam we’d actually cleared - unfortunately though, there’s still a lot more to still do,

Sue B