Rhododendron removal
22 August 2009
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A team of German volunteers spent the week recently removing rhododendron from a woodland near the Ulster Way in County Down.
The group, from all over Germany, were here as part of a summer ‘working holiday’ and spent their first week with our “biodiversity team”:http://www.cvni.org/biodiversity.
Rhododendron is a big problem in many woodlands and, even though pretty in spring when it flowers, it outcompetes native plants for space and resources. It also spreads rapidly once established.
Armed with bowsaws, loppers and heaps of enthusiasm, the group soon started to make headway into the large area of _Rhododendron ponticum_ that was growing in this area of “wet woodland”:http://www.cvni.org/biodiversity/index.php/Habitats/habitat/wet_woodland/.
Other highlights of their week (of course, the work was the main highlight!), were a visit to one of the sets for the film “Your Highness” currently being filmed in Northern Ireland and a trip to the Tall Ships that spent the same week in Belfast.
