News

There are a variety of terms used to describe the mixtures used to kill weeds: “plant protection product”, “herbicide”, “pesticide” – these words could all refer to the same bottle of Roundup sold over the counter at any one of hundreds or thousands of shops across the UK – or the professional products that INNSA members use to combat invasive species.

Personally, I am not afraid of any of these terms. Having studied chemistry at university and as a qualified pesticides advisor and a health and safety professional, I have a reasonable understanding of what these things are and how they work – although, of course, this is a field which a great many professionals have dedicated lifetimes of work to understanding, developing our collective knowledge and the regulation that underpins safe usage.

It is well known that invasive species, particularly including Himalayan balsam, can cause erosion on the banks of watercourses. The shallow root system of the Himalayan balsam plant, which dies and decomposes each year after the growing season, combined with the tendency for Himalayan balsam to form dense monoculture stands, results in riverbanks becoming denuded over winter and prone to being washed away by both rain and floodwaters. Loose soils enter the waterway, potentially carrying the seeds of the Himalayan balsam downstream, where they can come to rest, germinate, and spread the infestation to new areas.

When the going gets tough, it’s going to be tempting to cut a few corners.

Costs are going up, the bills keep coming through the door, the taxman is chasing his share and all your staff want a pay rise…what are you going to do?

Well, why not cheat? We have had reports that increasingly within our industry, some companies will simply not bother to do all the things that they’ve said they will do.

Defra has released a new invasive species strategy for Great Britain, highlighting a vision protect biodiversity, ecosystems, people and the economy and implement a partnership of government, voluntary organisations, NGOs, academia, businesses and the public.

The report highlights the likelihood that climate change will increase the problems caused by invasive species and sets out its aim to minimise the risk of introduction and establishment and reduce the negative impacts of invasive non-native species…..

We may have said it before but sometimes we in the INNSA offices wonder whether we would have been better focusing on a career in the legal profession.

Such thoughts have arisen a number of times over the past couple of months as we have watched several judgements come in from the civil courts and the Court of Appeal for cases involving Japanese knotweed. The cases have variously resulted in: significant financial damages awarded for misrepresentation … relatively inconsequential damages for loss of property value … and a case where damages were not awarded as the case was found in favour of the defendant.