Left to Right:
John Griffiths (Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development)
Gwenda Mark, Gill Wislocka and Marion Archer (organisers of the project)
Louise Tambini  (Projects Director from Keep Wales Tidy)

Cymdeithas Llandudoch, St. Dogmaels Community Association’s  himalayan balsam eradication project running in St Dogmaels and Poppit won the ‘River Improvements’ section of the Keep Wales Tidy Environment Awards sponsored by the Environment Agency.

The Trophy was presented at an award ceremony in Cardiff last week by John Griffiths, Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development.

The project identified over 21,500 square meters of flowering Himalayan Balsam in the Cippyn Valley and parts of St. Dogmaels and decided to develop a campaign to raise awareness of the problem. A programme extending to 31 working parties with 107 individual participants volunteering over 1,700 hours started pulling the Balsam in April 2011. Their hard work paid off, and in the autumn they witnessed  the return of a variety of native plants such as grasses, iris and bramble, which help to stabilise the river banks and prevent silt washing into the river and suffocating fish eggs and invertebrates

A big thank you to everybody who volunteered their time and effort to make the campaign a success.

To participate in some way in this year’s campaign contact Gill Wislocka on 01239 613 031