Cotoneaster clearance at Carmel Nature Reserve. Photo by Ceri Evans

Litter picking at Ffrwd Farm Mire. Photo by Veronica Haines

Team Carmarthenshire on invasive species and rubbish

This month we have been spent several days at Carmel cutting back some of the invasive species that are problematic for the site. 3 days were spent clearing and burning cotoneaster from the calcareous grassland. Much of this was treated with herbicide last summer and was dead. However in the biggest stand of it, the plants in the middle had escaped the chemical.

We slowly went through cutting it all back and burning in a small bonfire. This will make future regrowth easier to spot and treat, with the requirement for using large quantities of herbicide much reduced.

Soft rush has also been targeted. We have cut back some of the stands of this on one of the unimproved slopes. We aim to follow this up with a treatment of herbicide using a hand held weed wiper later in the summer.

New growth is more successfully controlled than old stands , which is why we are cutting it back now. We are trialing this method for the first time and if effective shall be rolling it out to other areas of the reserve where soft rush is a big problem.

We have also completed a roadside litter pick at our Ffwrd Farm Mire Reserve.  Several bags were collected, including a number that we separated for recycling, plus 2 strimmers and a side mirror from a lorry. Thanks so much to Brian Mogford from Carmarthenshire County Council for picking up and disposing of the rubbish for us.

The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales are very grateful to the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery who have made all this work possible.