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Tackling invasive plants in our canals


While a lush green waterway is a beautiful sight, British Waterways faces a constant and costly battle to manage excessive plant growth, particularly of invasive species, while protecting the important habitats that support biodiversity.

Marauding wildlife: the Robson Meeting tackles invasive plants

The Robson Meeting has been held every year since 1963 to discuss the management of aquatic plants and nature conservation.

British Waterways is always an active participant and this year’s meeting was dominated by non-native invasive plants, a problem that is made worse by the selling of ornamental plants for garden ponds and fish tanks that are often carelessly discarded into canals and rivers.

Environment policy manager Paul Beckwith gave a rallying call for a debate with Defra over its new guidance on the control and management of invasive species. The document, released without consultation, could have significant resource implications for British Waterways.

Invasive plants smother natural wildlife habitats

National ecologist Chris John presented with Helen Moggridge of Natural England, on the future of aquatic plants in the revised UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Chris said: "Thick mats of invasive vegetation such as floating pennywort not only cause problems for boaters and anglers, they also smother the habitats that native wildlife relies on to survive."

One of the challenges British Waterways faces is finding alternatives to the herbicides that can no longer be used to control invasive aquatic plants.

This, combined with reduced funding for research, means British Waterways has had to come up with more innovative ways to deal with aggressive 'weeds'. For example, last year, ecologist Penny Foster released tiny weevils into Dukes Lake in Oxfordshire to munch their way through water fern (Azolla filiculoides) that was slowly choking fish and other plant life.

Baroness Young of Old Scone added: "Effective management of invasive species is essential to conserve the unique biodiversity of the UK."

Last updated: 16/06/2010