Conservation Senior Manager Andrew Nixon joined Sonal Varia from CABI (Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International) last week at our Clifford Common Nature Reserve. They were releasing a biological control - a rust fungus for Himalayan Balsam which is an invasive, non-native flowering plant. 

The control has been trialed at a number of sites across the UK but this is the first release in the Wye catchment. It has been funded through the Water Environment Grant funded ROAR project  

Volunteers will be monitoring the effects of the rust and reporting back to CABI, they will also do two further releases of the rust fungus over the coming months.