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FEATURE 31
Newport Canal Himalayan Balsam Bash
by John Myers of Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust.
Last year I tracked the source of the balsam infestation
to Strine Brook Park, where it had probably been
brought in with topsoil or something similar.
I checked further up the Strine but did not find any
balsam higher up. I therefore decided that this year
we would attempt to clear both the canal and the
Strine Brook to the east of Town Lock as, otherwise,
the canal would keep getting re-infested.
This year’s Balsam Bash, which took place on 11 July,
was a great success as we managed to cover much
more of the overgrown area than expected. We were
amazed at how successful last year’s clearing of the
canal to the east of Town Lock had been, as this year
we found very little balsam on this section and three
of us cleared it in about 1½ hours.
The bulk of the work party (fourteen all together)
went into Strine Brook Park. We were helped by a
path that has recently been created through heavy
undergrowth along the Strine.
We even had time to clear the towpath to the west of
Town Lock as far as Tickethouse Lock, clear the high
walled section of the Strine alongside the cross-over
bridge by Town Bridge and to make a small start on
the offside to the west of Town Bridge.
If our experience this year is a guide, hopefully next
year we will be able to fairly quickly ‘police’ the canal
and the Strine to the east of Town Bridge then move
on to make a serious start on the heavily overgrown
western sections.