Before we got stuck in to clearing the Melingriffith feeder stream, building dead hedges and pulling up Himalayan Balsam, we were incredibly happy to be presented with a cheque for £2,996.23 by Mark Poole of Viridor — the recycling, renewable energy and waste management company — who came along to the event with a colleague. (They both pitched in volunteering afterwards, too!)
The grant, which comes from the Viridor & Prosiect Gwyrdd Community Fund, will be used to buy a small boat, to enable CRG to do even more work to help keep Cardiff’s waterways clean and beautiful.
We started clearing out the Melingriffith feeder stream almost two years ago, in August 2015. Given how choked with trees the stream has become, it’s definitely a long-term ‘habitat management’ project, but we’re definitely making a difference.
Removing trees from the stream greatly improves the flow, which in turn helps keep the stream clean and should result in more fish living in it. And more fish means that the local kingfishers and herons will visit the stream more often.
The huge number of branches removed were then used to extend the ‘dead hedge’ that we started building along the bank of the stream two years ago (which has survived surprisingly well).
The dead hedge will stop dogs from further eroding the banks of the stream.
As well as removing trees from the stream, volunteers pulled up swathes of Himalayan balsam along the banks of the stream, which should help to control its spread a bit.
Finally, contrary to whatever Mr Hackett might say, it was only a very small branch that might have hit him on the head.
