FoPV Work Morning Roundup - Tuesday 22nd July 2025

Lyndon
Jul 28
3 min read

Hello Conservation Volunteers

It was Groundhog Day for the volunteers on our latest work morning around the Forge Dam area i.e. more balsam pulling, and railing preparation and painting!

This time we reached the far western side of the Wet Woodland with some large clumps of balsam found which our volunteers could get stuck into. (We actually have volunteers who rate it as their favourite task and look forward to balsam pulling each year, easy going and satisfying is how they describe it particularly when there are large patches to eradicate!)

The top end near the road was reported as being clear. Lower down, large plants around the silt trap were removed which if left to seed would definitely have spread downstream.

Some of us walked the riverbank upstream on the lookout for and finding a number of small plants along with larger ones, usually in very difficult to reach places, which unfortunately resulted in water coming over the top of our wellies in some areas, however once emptied we could carry on!

Just on the other side of Carr Bridge a large patch was found on both banks of the river. Some was cleared but there is still more to be removed, particularly on the south side which is difficult to reach, probably why it has (unfortunately) flourished so well with very strong and healthy plants.

On our first foray into the Wet Woodland for balsam pulling this year, it was reported back one of our volunteers had lost his welly in the deep mud. Well, it turned out it was Dave M, and I am pleased to report it has now surfaced - that is a photo of the boot, footless and stuck in the mud, and not the actual boot itself re-appearing out of the depths of the mud! It's probably why Dave "The Boot" stuck to the dry side of the riverbank this time leaving the rest of us to get our feet wet....

When we are in the woodland we sometimes come across interesting fungi and this time was no different with John finding a fantastic specimen of what was thought initially to be a rare angel wing, but others have said it is probably a pale oyster mushroom. I'm definitely no expert but looking at John's photo and comparing it to photos of pale and white oyster mushrooms it does look more like an angel wing. Submitting it to Google results in it thinking it is angel wing. What do you think? See the photo and please let us know. Regardless of what it is, as angel wings are regarded as being toxic we won't be eating it!

https://a-z-animals.com/blog/oyster-mushrooms-vs-angel-wing-mushrooms/

The railings above the slide have a lot of surface area which requires the old flaking paint to be scraped off to provide a stable surface for the paint to be applied, so it's credit to our prep and painting crew over the sessions (Dave C, Emma, Ted, Peter and Mike) who have now finished the scraping stage. Another panel has been primed, and provided we have the green paint replacement which was taken for the Endcliffe Park toilet doors(!) hopefully we will see some finished panels next time and more with the red primer. Already the two panels primed in red look better. The work was certainly appreciated by Mr Robin who came down to have a look and give his approval.

Elsewhere, Mandy, whose original intention was doing balsam pulling, conveniently left her pole in the car and decided instead to cut back overgrown foliage around the driveway approach to Forge Dam. A good choice Mandy, it looks so much better, and you had dry feet!

Ann, who over past sessions has tended to the plants on the new sitting out area above the cafe, did some more weeding and tidying up on the flowerbeds.

Thank you to everybody who joined us and also to Mandy for the raspberry flapjacks - so good it would have been rude not to have a second piece!

The next work morning is on Thursday 14th August. An email will be sent out nearer the time with details.

Lyndon

A Selection of photos from the work morning

John pulling balsam along the riverbank