2 goodgymers David and Neill finished clearing the meadow of an invasive plant at Riverside. A hard job, well done!!!!

This week's group run was a return to the very long task of removing invasive goldenrod plants from the riverside meadow.

A few years ago when we started tackling this task the plant covered the whole meadow and was shoulder high all over. The big thick clumps took all our might to pull out.

After several seasons of pulling by us and other volunteer groups the meadow is showing massively improved biodiversity and the goldenrod that remains was just knee high little seedlings and shoots from fragments of root left behind last year. The pulling was also much easier as they didn't have as firm a grip of the ground.

With six of us picking our way between plants and pulling up piles of plants we made a huge impact toward finally getting this patch cleared. Plus we got it all done before it went to seed! We'll see what returns next year but it won't be much and we'll be back to finish it off once and for all.

3 Goodgymers ( plus Duncan’s surprise visit ) joined friends of people’s park on Saturday morning for monthly litter pick . Together we managed to collect over 10 bags of waste plus a TV

A gang of four set out into Leagrave park on a litter hunt, collecting all the usual bottles cans and wrappers that had collected since last month's efforts.

Random objects discovered this time included a desk chair, a bike and a Zimmer frame that someone had helpfully thrown into the river. There must be a shortage of trolleys!

Last unusual find was a statue of Ganesh hidden under the bridge. He seemed to be enjoying his tranquil spot watching the ducks so we left him in peace.

There's a big push going to clear the invasive Himalayan Balsam plants from the banks of the River Lea. I went to join the volunteers helping out with TCV leader Jen and found the familiar faces of Kevin, John and Barbara who are regulars at the conservation tasks around Luton.

Together we climbed down into the brook at Lewsey Park, fortunately not very wet at the moment with no rainfall and a firm gravelly bottom meant walking along it was easy. It was nice a cool in the water under the shade of the trees while the midday heatwave sun shone up above. Working along the brook we tackled clumps of balsam, gently pulling out the roots and snapping them off to ensure nothing is left behind to grow again.

We managed to clear a decent stretch of the plants before they start flowering and popping out more seeds so hopefully there'll be less here next year!

Just a small crew of litterpickers this month on Dallow Downs, but a powerful bunch we were as the four of us tackled a new area for a change at the bottom of the hill.

First task was a clean-up around the playground at the bottom the of the hill, where half-term playtimes in the park had amassed a large amount of litter and the bins overflowed.

Second task was to head up the steepest hill and clear the litter from a small wooded area with the help of a handy extra-long litterpicker to get into the dense undergrowth.