6-7-2014 – Balsam bashing and litter picking
On Sunday 6th July, the CATCH team and various willing members of the public assembled for our first major river undertaking of the summer, a morning of concentrated work in three areas: removing litter from the river and its surrounds; uprooting Himalayan balsam from the banks; and mapping and cataloguing the various drains and outflows that empty into the Cale. These latter include some which appear to be long since defunct, some whose purpose is clearly obvious, and some which look a little suspicious in that they may be emptying polluted water, the source of which needs to be identified. In the suspicious cases, we can pass our findings on to the council and/or the Environment Agency for further investigation, and having a fully catalogued list means that any future incidents can be referred to as “outlet #23” instead of “the one a bit upstream from the bridge, no the other bridge, on the left bank, just up from that tree that looks a bit odd…” …hopefully this will eliminate any confusion!
CATCH would like to offer sincere thanks to all who attended, particularly to our district councillor Nick Colbert, who came along to see what we were up to but was not reticent about grabbing a litter-picker and getting to work; also to everyone who has helped to publicise the event, including Stephen Davy-Osborne of the Western Gazette, the Wincanton Window, and our own committe advisor John Spragg who came along to take a video of the occasion. His video, and that posted in the Window, are both shown below.
Assembly at the Rec ground car park, 9.30am
The crew gathered at the park, awaiting instructions
Matt delivers a health and safety briefing.
Item one on today’s agenda: litter picking.
Item two: removal of Himalayan Balsam.
Item three: mapping and cataloguing drains and outlets into the Cale.
And one person manning the CATCH stand to give info to passers-by.
Litter squad #1, making their way into the water.
No rubbish can hope to evade our eagle eyes!
First bicycle of the day, in surprisingly good condition.
Darren attempting to ride the second bicycle, in considerably worse condition.
Gary collects river treasure – a fossilized mollusc.
Balsam bashing group having pulled out large chunks of the stuff.
If left out to dry, the balsam dies off quickly and becomes harmless.
Unfortunately, despite being pleasant to look at, Himalayan Balsam wreaks havoc upon river wildlife.
More historical rubbish: part of an old style fire extinguisher.
Some people are responsible enough to collect and bag their dog’s mess, but then throw the bag in the river!
Darren carefully photographs and details all of the outlets…
…even the ones buried in the undergrowth!
We also found some garden waste… perhaps intended to provide food for river wildlife.
If so the intentions are honourable, but misguided … it will do more harm than good.
This pile is what was taken out of the northern half of our efforts…
…the southern collection was left inside the railings at the under-construction games facility.
And after the hard work, drinks and cakes all round!
A morning well spent. Thanks to all who attended!
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