St Sampson’s pupils clear sour fig after school
STUDENTS having been giving up their time after school to help clear sour fig on Guernsey’s north coast.
St Sampson’s High School students have dedicated two afternoons after school this week to removing as much of the invasive plant species as they can around Fort Le Marchant.
Teacher Jess Ingles said the idea came from the school's student council.
‘Our student council wanted to do an environmental project somewhere around the island,’ she said.
‘We were then put in contact with La Societe earlier this year, who referred us to the issue.’
Sour fig is an invasive, succulent species of plant from South Africa.
It forms impenetrable mats, typically on the coast, which smother other plant species.
After a large patch of the plant was cleaned up by the school earlier this year, pupils decided they wanted to return again.
‘After seeing the issue first hand, the students and myself were keen to open this up to more people at the school,’ Miss Ingles said.
‘It has been great to get stuck in again, and we would certainly come back next year as well.’
La Societe group leader Becky Ogier also recognises the problem of sour fig.
‘There is a large concentration of it on the island, especially on the west and south coasts.’
‘What we are doing is preserving the land, as the plant lets nothing else live beneath it.’
Students were excited to get involved with the environmental project.
‘It is proper hard work, but it pays off in the end,’ Oliver Le Sauvage, 14, said.
The species out-competes native plants of the island, and a single plant can measure up to 50m across.
The dense mats are heavy and hard to pull up, said Thomas Heaume, 12.
‘They have stuck themselves into the ground, it is hard to get them out.
‘We volunteered for this when we got a letter.’
The succulent plant will grow back once it has been removed, but staff and students were passionate about keeping the coast healthy whenever they could.
