A floating digger is being used as part of a major community project to remove harmful invasive weeds from the Nottingham and Beeston canal.
The Canal & River Trust is using the machinery to tackle the rapid spread of Floating Pennywort from the five-mile canal stretch.
The weed, originally introduced in the 1980s as an ornamental garden pond plant, grows by up to 20cm (8 inches) a day and if unchecked can spread over the surface of water, smothering native plants and fish.
“It’s is a particular menace,” said Richard Bennett, Nature Recovery Manager at the charity.
“If we didn’t tackle it, it would choke our canals, preventing navigation and causing real damage to the wildlife that calls them home.”
He said the invasive weed has, “become a real problem for us on this canal.”
This particular stretch is especially vital, as it feeds into the water used by the Nottingham District Heating Scheme to provide heat and power to homes across the city.
The charity enlisted the help of specialist contractors Rothen, to pull the plant out of the water over the past week.
“Pennywort grows extremely quickly in warm conditions,” said Angela Cresswell, the Rothen’s Project Manager, “so after the recent sunny weather it’s grown quite extensively.”
The company’s crane boat, nicknamed ‘Ely’ has been on the canal since Monday, carefully clearing the waters of up to 30 tonnes of the weed a day.
The plant is then hauled to the back of the towpath to naturally decompose.
Richard says dealing with the plant is a “never-ending task” due to its rapid growth rate.
“This year we’ve had more support than ever,” he added.
“Both in terms of donations, allowing us to resource this essential work, but also with people coming to help.”
The trust’s own Towpath Taskforce, volunteer canoeists and paddleboarders have also been helping to pull the weed from hard-to-reach-places along the waterways.
“It’s been very encouraging and we really want this to continue, Richard said, “every little bit of help counts.”
Floating Pennywort is causing problems for rivers and canals across the country, Angela says, with demand for her company’s floating digger always spiking after summer.
“We work nationwide tackling this species,” she said.
The company has similar ongoing projects removing Pennywort from canals in London and Chester.
