Thanks a Million!

The combined effort of community groups, schools, partners and volunteers across the Eden river catchment has forced us to rethink our plans. With July and August still viable months for the removal of Himalayan balsam plants, we're doubling down and targeting multi-millionaire status in 2026.

Jenni Payne, our Community Engagement and Volunteer Coordinator said:

“We thought removing ONE MILLION Himalayan balsam plants was ambitious, but this is one of those rare moments when we can say it’s wonderful to be proved wrong!

“We’d be letting our amazing volunteers and communities down if we didn’t step up and match their effort and ambition, not to mention the wellbeing of our native wildlife.

“So…we have July and August, we’ve upped our target to TWO MILLION, recalibrated our ‘Balsam-o-Meter’, and we're putting the call our for more volunteers!”

Fittingly, the landmark figure of one million plants was achieved with the help of ‘The Young Volunteer North’ group, on a return visit to Wetheral Woods. The young volunteers were accompanied by Ruth and Laura from Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Malcolm from North Pennines National Landscape (NPNL); demonstrating the power of partnerships in tackling a species impacting waterways across an entire river catchment.

Malcolm Judge, Community Engagement Officer with NPNL said,

“It was so encouraging to see a group of children keen to do their bit for the River Eden. The group ended up with a huge pile of bashed balsam, creating valuable breathing space for Eden’s native plants to recolonise Wetheral’s woodland.

“We had no idea that our contribution would see the charity over the line in its goal to remove one million plants this summer. It has been an incredible effort by Eden Rivers Trust and many hundreds of volunteers.”