Balsam.

[Somerford]

so do I

Who are you disagreeing with ;-) ?

 

[VEG]

Who are you disagreeing with ;-) ?

not you lol

 

[madasafish]

5 tonnes of balsam seed stored if needed...................

 

[VEG]

5 tonnes of balsam seed stored if needed...................

Got my own supply

 

[Mark Young]

Introducing an invasive fungus to tackle an invasive plant.
Not the best idea. These things almost certainly evolve to become insidious to native plants. If we stop interfering a new natural balance will occur. More interference means more unforeseen problems.

 

[davnig]

Introducing an invasive fungus to tackle an invasive plant.
Not the best idea. These things almost certainly evolve to become insidious to native plants. If we stop interfering a new natural balance will occur. More interference means more unforeseen problems.

Good Post - they won't be able to guarantee it only affects it's target

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Cane toads come to mind

 

[lebouche]

Cane toads come to mind

You licked one? (up in court for toad bothering )
Apparently licking them gives a good trip....it's quite popular!

 

[madasafish]

You licked one? (up in court for toad bothering )
Apparently licking them gives a good trip....it's quite popular!

Only witches need to lick toads.

Us warlocks play with dragons.. and dungeons...

 

[crazy_bull]

Spreading the seed about to areas not already infested (which I know a few of you do) is as bad as the misguided (insert own expletive)'s that thought it was cruel to farm mink and so released them into the wild to only see the natural world get altered dramatically and probably irreparably by the mink.



C B

Ps, I am not saying mink farming isn't cruel, just the protestors opened pandoras box, in letting the sods out.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Spreading the seed about to areas not already infested (which I know a few of you do) is as bad as the misguided (insert own expletive)'s that thought it was cruel to farm mink and so released them into the wild to only see the natural world get altered dramatically and probably irreparably by the mink.



C B

Ps, I am not saying mink farming isn't cruel, just the protestors opened pandoras box, in letting the sods out.

 

[crazy_bull]

Introducing an invasive fungus to tackle an invasive plant.
Not the best idea. These things almost certainly evolve to become insidious to native plants. If we stop interfering a new natural balance will occur. More interference means more unforeseen problems.

Whilst I agree a Fungus may not be the best idea, I am not sure a natural balance would occur quick enough to prevent irreversible damage, there are no natural predators to it (apart from us) evolution takes many hundreds of generations to take hold. Think of signal crayfish, mink, Knotweed etc etc

The river Monnow system has effectively been cleared of balsam by a concerted effort to hand pull and spray where necessary. I think some people are being very selfish when just thinking on £'s for jars of honey with regards the bigger picture, there are other opportunities to get a lot of honey without balsam.

 

[Mark Young]

Whilst I agree a Fungus may not be the best idea, I am not sure a natural balance would occur quick enough to prevent irreversible damage, there are no natural predators to it (apart from us) evolution takes many hundreds of generations to take hold. Think of signal crayfish, mink, Knotweed etc etc

The river Monnow system has effectively been cleared of balsam by a concerted effort to hand pull and spray where necessary. I think some people are being very selfish when just thinking on £'s for jars of honey with regards the bigger picture, there are other opportunities to get a lot of honey without balsam.

You are of course correct and there is no reason that physical removal should be stopped; but introducing a fungus!!! Fungus could “horizontally” gene transfer which is on par with bacterial evolution for resistance and transfer from plants to animals to humans. That aside a fungal disease is much harder to treat than bacteria.
Best case is we have two problems to deal with instead of one. Worst case is infinite.

 

[clv101]

Introducing an invasive fungus to tackle an invasive plant.
Not the best idea. These things almost certainly evolve to become insidious to native plants. If we stop interfering a new natural balance will occur. More interference means more unforeseen problems.

I'm not really sure what the problem is with Balsam. My Dad wrote a blog on this recently: http://goo.gl/B2HoQ3
Basically he looked at a couple papers in the scientific literature trying to find out why the government has it in for himalayan balsam. The literature doesn't suggest there's a serious problem.

 

[mbc]

I'm not really sure what the problem is with Balsam. My Dad wrote a blog on this recently: http://goo.gl/B2HoQ3
Basically he looked at a couple papers in the scientific literature trying to find out why the government has it in for himalayan balsam. The literature doesn't suggest there's a serious problem.

There's not much of a problem, some people quote river bank erosion but all ecologists should welcome a little natural restructuring of our rivers courses. The biggy is that balsom is too successful, it out competes other plants. However, it does have natural "predators", all grazing animals I know of will eat it.

 

[clv101]

The biggy is that balsom is too successful, it out competes other plants.

Is there actual scientific evidence for that? This paper (Hejda M, and Pyšek P, What is the impact of Impatiens glandulifera on species diversity of invaded riparian vegetation? Biological Conservation Volume 132, Issue 2, October 2006, Pages 143–152) has this in it's abstract:

"It is concluded that I. glandulifera exerts negligible effect on the characteristics of invaded riparian communities, hence it does not represent threat to the plant diversity of invaded areas."

 

[crazy_bull]

The balsam has been directly attributed to bank erosion increases which have then caused silting up of brown trout spawning areas

 

[Ely]

I think I'd prefer to follow guidence of those more educated on the matter and know what they are talking about rather than speculating or following personal desires. What a state this country and its countryside would be in if were allowed to do exactly as we pleased.

 

[clv101]

I think I'd prefer to follow guidence of those more educated on the matter and know what they are talking about rather than speculating or following personal desires. What a state this country and its countryside would be in if were allowed to do exactly as we pleased.

Yes, very true - which is why it's worth looking for the scientific evidence that supposedly backs up government policy.

 

[Mark Young]

Yes, very true - which is why it's worth looking for the scientific evidence that supposedly backs up government policy.

I think Ely said someone educated, rather than someone in Government