Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) was introduced to Kew Gardens from Kashmir in 1839, brought as an ornamental plant and dispersed by gardeners and beekeepers who celebrated its nectar rich flowers.
It is indisputably a handsome plant with sweet, scented purple to pink flowers growing to at least two metres in height with hollow red stems. It is an annual plant, withering in the autumn, but its highly efficient seed dispersal means that it can colonise the damp places it favours, riverbanks, ditches and wet meadows, swiftly. Its seeds are spread by the extraordinary spring mechanism of its pods, scattering them up to seven metres from the parent plant.
Many groups of conservationists see it as a thug and a threat: choking waterways, eroding riverbanks and smothering native species.
"Himalayan balsam" by Ashley Basil is licensed under CC BY 2.0.The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Organisation have adopted a best practice guide, RAPID, that stands for Reducing and Preventing Invasive Alien Species and Dispersal. They organised a Big Balsam Bash in 2021 where volunteers tore up Himalayan Balsam from riverbanks. It is in fact easy to pull up because it has very shallow roots and grows in soft ground.
As far as I could see on my internet search a lone voice speaks up for Himalayan Balsam – Chris Thomas, Professor of Conservation Biology at York University. He believes such species can add to biodiversity. He says that plants and animals are altering where they live because of climate change and because we human beings are steadily and relentlessly changing the world’s habitats. Professor Thomas’s message is that we should ‘attempt to embrace the new invaders’ and that there are more useful ways of helping wildlife and native plants than by bashing balsam.
Helen Baczkowska of NWT tells us that the Trust hand pulls Himalayan Balsam where it becomes dominant, especially on nature reserves where it is crowding out other plants. However she says that we live in such changing times that it is not easy to know what the best strategy is and “overall I suspect that trying to eradicate it is unlikely to succeed and so we need to live with it a lot of the time, but in certain cases we might need to monitor or control it, especially where it chokes water courses or crowds out orchids.”
Sources:
Guardian newspaper 7.6.21
You can read more about monitoring the spread of Himalayan Balsam here
Written October 2022
Published January 2025
- Details
- Written by: Hilary Hosea
Sunday 16th February 12 - 2pm.
This will be a lunchtime occasion (bring and share a dish) and will include a couple of inspirational 10 minute talks about what's happening nature-wise around our village - good news stories to cheer us on our way into 2025. Drinks provided.
Please reply to Christina on
- Details
- Written by: The Steering Group
Forncett Nature Matters recently welcomed Nathan Walker from the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) to talk to us about his role in helping farmers with the recent government-driven changes in agricultural policy. Our Green County Councillor, Catherine Rowett and a local small-scale farmer kindly volunteered to join Nathan, forming a panel afterwards which kickstarted a lively Q and A session.
Photo: Carol SharpIn his talk Nathan ran through the many reasons for the loss of biodiversity in recent history:
- Climate crisis -exacerbated by our use of fossil fuels
- Urbanisation - causing habitat loss and fragmentation
- Water management - wetlands drying out and disappearing
- Pollution - of air, soils, rivers and seas (eg chemicals/microplastics/waste management)
Government policy after WW2 encouraged agricultural intensification, with the aim of increasing yields to feed a rapidly growing population. Payments to farmers were linked to this policy. Many farmers had to turn from hay meadows and hay making to uniform grass meadows for silage, and from mixed farming to monoculture. There was a switch from spring- to autumn-sown cereals, leaving few overwintered stubbles that birds and small mammals had relied on. Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides were employed, along with artificial fertilisers. Hedgerows were taken out to accommodate larger machinery, and prairie-sized fields destroyed connectivity of habitats for nature.
We now know that the unintended consequence of all this was a devastating loss of biodiversity, and, with this crisis in mind, Government policies for farming have now changed radically. Alongside the production of high quality food, care of the environment is also recognised as essential. The Environment Act of 2021 laid out statutory targets for restoring biodiversity. It introduced Agri-Environment Schemes and Environmental Stewardship, which have now become Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS). Payments to farmers are to be linked accordingly. Our farmer panellist, who has taken advantage of the older Environment Schemes, told us the process with ELMS is quite a challenge and not always straightforward!
The Norfolk FWAG try to make sense of legislation for farmers. It is a charity created in 1969 and gives farmers help in managing their land with an environmental focus, and filling in paperwork to receive payment for it. Farmers look at the ways they can expand habitats for wildlife through buffer zones alongside their sown fields, maintaining, enhancing and restoring hedges and ditches, restoring ponds, fens, reedbeds and wetland and looking after sustainable, biodiverse woodland.
As Nathan said, the biggest asset on the farm is its soil. Well-managed soil produces good crops, retains water and reduces flooding in heavy rains. Healthy soil structure is good for roots, supports worms and other soil dwellers and has a rich microbiome of fungi and bacteria. Habitats around the farm are vital homes for diverse species. They provide shelter, warmth and nectar, nesting places and food such as wild plant seeds and hedgerow berries. The better connected the habitats, the more effective they are, and they need protection from intensive agricultural activities.
Field margin in Forncett Photo: Ally Rae
Many of our South Norfolk farmers already leave fallow plots for ground nesting birds such as skylarks and for the brown hare. Some are also supporting wildlife by adding networks of hedgerows and field margins for greater connectivity. Those on the old stewardship schemes have already got a head start. On awkwardly shaped bits of land winter bird seed mixes are appearing, and native wildflowers are sown. Margins and sometimes whole fields are being devoted to plants for pollinators, which often double as green manures to be incorporated later to help to improve soil structure.
Thank you to Nathan and the panel for a very stimulating and thought provoking meeting. Interesting discussions continued over refreshments. It made everyone aware of the importance of supporting our farmers as they come to terms with the changes the new legislation will bring.
What Can We do to Help?
- Be an informed consumer. Support your local farmers – short supply chains are best.
- Lobby your MP for sufficient financial support for conservation.
- Support the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust, all helping to support farmers in their task to restore biodiversity.
- Have a look at the work of Norfolk FWAG.
This event - a Talk and Q&A - will be an important one for farmers, other landowners, and gardeners wishing to keep up to date with environmental farming practices, so please put the date below in your diary (yes, it's Thursday for a change!) and share the information with anyone you know who would be interested, including those people who don't have access to technology and often miss out on publicity.
Speaker Nathan Walker is the Farming Conservation Advisor for FWAG, (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group.)
The Association supports farmers in choosing some of the best ways to implement measures to enhance wildlife and landscape on farmland.
All are welcome - farmers especially; the rest of us will learn how to better understand and appreciate the life and work of the farmers who are at the heart of the communities of South Norfolk.
There will be a panel of down to earth people to discuss all your questions.
Free entry, but donations to cover costs are gratefully accepted.
Light refreshments will be served. Wine available.
- Details
- Written by: Hilary Hosea and Christina Wakeford
On the 14th September, 2024, the weather decided to be extremely kind to us and we had a very enjoyable walk along some local footpaths in lovely warm sunshine.
We’re off! (photo by Carol Sharp)
The walk started at Carol’s meadow, just off Tabernacle lane, and we proceeded along the lane, until we reached the steps that have been cut into the bank for access to the start of our footpath walk, on Footpath 30. This walk would take us on a circular route of some two and a half miles, avoiding all but a short section of roads.
The group on the first part of FP30 (photo by Carol Sharp)
The first section of FP30 is at a relatively high point, allowing fabulous views to the south, and this is one of the many views that are planned to be decimated by the march of huge, 50m high pylons, running for some 180km from Norwich to Tilbury:-
View South. The pylons would run right to left in the dip between the wheatfield and the sugarbeat above. (photo by Keith Fromings)
Route of proposed Pylons through Forncett . National Grid.
From this point we continued along the footpath, passing a hedge filed with Brambles containing some rather tasty blackberries. A butterfly that delights in basking in the sunshine, sipping the nectar from the bramble flowers, is the Comma, so called because the underside of the wings, on both sexes, has a distinctive white “Comma”. This lovely butterfly is the only British butterfly with ragged edges to the wings, giving the appearance of torn drying leaves in the autumn colours.
Comma (photo by Carol Sharp)
We continue along FP30, down a hill towards a group of houses at Cordwell, where we join one of the Bunwell footpaths, FP10, and follow this initially South.
South run of Bunwell FP10 (photo by Phil Whiscombe)
We bear East, along a lower point roughly where the pylons would run and cross the path. A ditch runs the length of this path and is again edged with various hedges, trees, plants and insect life. Deer and rabbits are very often seen along and around this path, enjoying the quiet of the area, some distance from any of the roads, and sheltered in the low lying fields.
Broad Plantain (Perhaps?) (photo by Carol Sharp)
We follow this path until we reach the road at Brocks Water, a ford that frequently floods in the rainy season (as fords frequently do!) and head along the road (Tabernacle lane again) until the turning into Gilderswood. [The exposed earth bank on this corner is an excellent place to see the burrows of solitary bees, while the rough pasture in the back of the shot has been explored as a possible habitat of the very rare Shrill Carder Bee - Editor]
Tabernacle Lane/Gilderswood junction at Brocks Water (photo by Phil Whiscombe)
A short walk up the hill, passing some pretty impressive Rabbit Warrens in the hedgerow, brings us to a footpath on the left. This is Forncett FP26, which crosses another field of sugar beat, that has completely covered the actual footpath. So, we take advantage of the tracks left by the farm machinery to skirt around the fields.
Making use of the tracks on FP26 (photo by Carol Sharp)
We emerge at a junction on Long Stratton road and a short walk westbound, along a narrow lane, brings us to a junction that joins up once again to Tabernacle Lane. Here, we turn right across another field, along FP 28.
Nearly back, crossing FP28 (photo by Carol Sharp)
A few more steps bring us back to our starting point, in Carol’s meadow. Our walk has taken us around 2 hours, enjoying company, conversation, and the warmth of the pleasant sunshine.
The group of intrepid walkers (photo by Phil Whiscombe)
Forncett footpaths (plus Bunwell 10)
We are very lucky to live in an area that has so many lovely walks, with safe footpaths. This was made especially relevant just a few years ago at the height of the Pandemic. Those who lived in the cities, possibly in high rise flats with no gardens, must have been particularly affected by constraints on their movement.
But, Pandemic or not, getting out and about is so beneficial for our health and wellbeing, and I believe access to our wonderful network of footpaths is vitally important. They are worth fighting for where the need arises and thanks should go to the landowners who give their permission to walk some of these paths and to a few volunteer workers that help to maintain them, cutting the grass and hedges and reporting issues that can then be raised with Highways in an effort to rectify any problems.
I enjoyed our walk together and it’s a shame that I couldn’t stay to join the tea party. Thank you Carol for this, and I hope you all got what you wanted from our small expedition.
- Details
- Written by: Keith Fromings
Please join us at Forncett Village Hall and the adjoining Jubilee Green for a creative workshop suitable for children of nursery and primary ages. No need to book. Drop in and out any time between 10am and 1pm. It’s free of charge and refreshments for children and carers will be provided. (Donations are always very welcome but not obligatory).
Creative activities on wildlife themes will be provided by experienced leaders in the Village Hall with some outside activities, weather permitting. Carers are responsible for their children’s well-being and safety. Providing an old shirt is a good idea to cover up children’s clothes for painting, using clay, etc. If it’s hot please also bring sunscreen and a sun hat. We have a gazebo for shelter but if it’s very wet and windy or chilly all the activities will be in the Village Hall.
We are still being vigilant about transmission of Covid 19 so if any member of your household has any symptoms please do not attend this event.
Also, please note that no dogs are allowed on this occasion. Thank you.
- Details
- Written by: Carol Sharp