Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Teesdale Mercury
  • News
  • Features
  • Test Drive
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Art & Leisure
  • Buy your paper
  • Buy our photos
  • Digital edition
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Features
  • Test Drive
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Art & Leisure
  • Buy your paper
  • Buy our photos
  • Digital edition
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Teesdale Mercury
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT

Volunteers tackle riverbank raider

by Nicky Carter
August 27, 2018
in Country Life
Volunteers tackle riverbank raider

GOING INTO BATTLE: Left

A GROUP of volunteers spent a humid morning by the River Tees ridding a section of the bank side of Himalayan balsam, an invasive weed, which has become more widespread.

Geoff King, of Trees for Teesdale, and nine volunteers spent the morning uprooting the troublesome plant from the bank side between the weir and the Silver Bridge.

Himalayan Balsam is an invasive non-native plant, which was introduced to the United Kingdom by Victorian collectors at the same time as Japanese hogweed.

ADVERTISEMENT

The balsam plant, which has delicate pink flowers, can grow up to two metres in height, but it smothers everything around it and when it dies in the autumn, it leaves nothing but mud.

Mr King said: “Each seed head can contain up to 200 seeds and it has an aggressive seed dispersal reach of up to four metres, so it’s important to try and get rid of them before they mature.

“Until there is a biological way of dealing with the plant we have to continue pulling them.”

ADVERTISEMENT

He added: “It’s relatively simple to uproot them, but you need to break the stalk from the rootball otherwise they can re-root. We’re probably a little late this year as some of the seed pods are mature, but we do what we can.”

The volunteers also cleared the area of Ragwort, another invasive weed, though this was bagged and taken away.

ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Trevor ‘the Fed Man’ will be sadly missed

Next Post

Record partnership sets up vital win for Evenwood CC

ADVERTISEMENT
No Result
View All Result

Stay connected

Facebook Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT

Most popular

Get ready for Staindrop Carnival this month

Get ready for Staindrop Carnival this month

July 3, 2025
Green Lane early years team among best in country

Green Lane early years team among best in country

July 7, 2025
High levels of violence at Deerbolt Prison – report

High levels of violence at Deerbolt Prison – report

July 1, 2025
‘Losing landlines will put lives at risk during power cuts’

‘Losing landlines will put lives at risk during power cuts’

July 2, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

15C Harmire Enterprise Park
Barnard Castle
Co Durham
DL12 8BN

Email: [email protected]

Registered in England as Barrnon Media Limited. No: 12475190

VAT registration number: 343486488

Explore

  • Art & Leisure
  • Business
  • Country Life
  • Features
  • News
  • Sport
  • Test Drive
  • Digital edition

Useful links

  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Buy your paper
  • Photosales
  • Digital edition
  • About us

Follow us on

© Barrnon Media Limited 2025

Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy / Cookie Policy

This website and its associated newspaper are members of the Independent Press Standards Organisation
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Features
  • Test Drive
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Art & Leisure
  • Buy your paper
  • Buy our photos
  • Digital edition
  • Contact

© 2024