WHALESBOROUGH Ham, adjacent to Bude Canal near the set of inland locks, is a developing natural habitat.

Last year’s repairs to the lock walls demanded a compensatory area of water vole friendly habitat to be created close by, but now in the pasture land.

Until the scrub began to spread, there were a couple of large, shallow ponds there, which are now being encroached upon.

The compensatory area is a large, shallow scrape here, which already holds interesting freshwater invertebrates.

The surrounding reed beds have been penetrated by invasive aliens — Himalayan Balsam. Last year, volunteers removed many of these plants but failed to clear the area.

This year, six Bude Valley Volunteers joined the Bude Marshes Ranger, Gareth Cann, to remove the new growth.

Himalayan Balsam is a non-native alien invasive, that grows up to two metres in height and smothers other native vegetation. It removes a lot of water from the ground, making it drier and unsuitable for the native reeds.

Eventually it would come to dominate the area so control is vital.

It is hoped that continued removal will help this small but vital area revert to natural reed bed, where birds, mammals and invertebrates can thrive.