I’m Tired of Killing Things….

A wise man once said ‘Mike Clough has probably killed more Japanese knotweed than anybody in the UK’. When I first heard him say this I laughed and thought ….‘He probably says that to every invasive species contractor that he knows’.

Then somebody else told me that he actually often repeated the phrase during his lectures and when asked he always clarified ‘Obviously not Mike Clough on his own, but the team at JKSL’.

I’m guessing he could be right.

We have been doing this longer than anybody else and we have tackled some of the larger problem sites in the UK. We continue, by turnover, to be the larger of the invasive species specialists out there and consistently exceed the numbers of projects dealt with by others.

We manage and maintain a database of thousands of sites that have been remediated over our 25 years of service and we are still the only company in the UK with a dedicated re-visit team who do nothing but manage our ongoing treatment sites and carry out surveys and management as required of our catalogue of completed projects.

So maybe, we have killed more Japanese knotweed than anybody else?

However, the point of this blog is that maybe I DON’T just want to kill things …maybe it’s about time we put something back.

In 2025, we shall be pushing for an equality policy, whereby for every square metre of invasive plant treatment carried out, we will be encouraging clients to put back a square metre of native planting. We know this won’t always be possible …but …we can but try and encourage clients with – for example, river frontage sites or road side infestations.

Areas where, just treating invasive plants will simply leave open ground that must be managed correctly and replanted – or they will just be invaded by the next order of invasive plant that happens to be nearby.

I’d like to think the next phase of my life I can be famous for planting and growing native species, rather than just being a hired assassin against invasive plants.

Mike the Jackal C