by KBergReserve

The Wednesday Hack

Over the last month the group again hacked Rooikrans on the verges of Porter Drive. A new site on the mountain side of the R44 as it leaves Betty’s Bay was started. It is a critical site as the witches brew of aliens are not only threatening the mountain slopes but has endangered the water supply of the properties on the sea side of the R44, thrilling stuff! Frik Potgieter Convenor Cell: 084 600 9891
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by KBergReserve

WALK REPORT: SATURDAY 22 APRIL 2017

-Barbara Jenman On 21 Feb this year a wildfire swept across Clarence Drive, raced towards Pringle Bay and consumed a substantial part of the fynbos of the Brodie Link, also known as the Hangklip Nature Reserve, damaging some homes in Pringle Bay and threatening many more. We went to see what flora was emerging two months later. Maybe the little rainfall in the interim had helped. The surprise was evident. Fire resistant Mountain palmiet (Bergpalmiet), Tetraria thermalis, was still intact and erect. “They stood out in isolation in what looked like a wasteland,” says walker…
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by KBergReserve

TALK REPORT: APRIL 2017

-Andrea Benn Co-existing with wildfire - A presentation by Ryan Heydenrych and Dean Harrison, Directors of Vulcan Wildfire Management: Saturday 22 April 2017 This talk was an excellent, informative presentation. The day after the talk I did a walk around Betty`s Bay with this question in my mind, ‘Were we ready for a wildfire this summer?’ Within 100 metres of our home were three properties heavily infested with large alien invasive species! Since the last fire we have tried as far as possible to reduce the fuel load on our property, but there is more…
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by KBergReserve

TALKS PLANNED FOR 2017

Saturday 20 May: Dr Allan Heydorn will speak on “The Rock Lobsters of Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island and how they relate to the perlemoen and kreef poaching in the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve”. At 18h00 – Nivenia Hall, HPBG. Allan, a diver/scientist, while on an expedition actually looking for diamonds, was the person who first discovered the Tristan rock lobsters on Vema Seamount in 1964. Subsequent publicity (not from Allan) led to “a ruthless international onslaught” on this virgin population of rock lobsters from which it has never recovered. Saturday 17 June: Geologist Dr…
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by KBergReserve

WALKS PLANNED FOR 2017

Saturday 20 May 2017: Jean’s Hill, Kleinmond Winter is coming and so is Protea time. Protea compacta, Protea longifolia, Protea lepidocarpodendron, Protea neriifolia, Protea coronata, Protea cynaroides, Protea repens and more. How many canwe find? A good place to look is on Jean’s Hill above Kleinmond. Protea compacta           Protea longifolia The Jean’s Hill Trail is short (just over 2 kilometres to the top and back), quite steep in places and offers splendid views over Kleinmond to the sea. Time allowing, the search for Proteas in bloom can be extended to the…
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by KBergReserve

PRINGLE BAY: HACK REPORT N0 123

-Chris Geldenhuys, Convenor With the Pringle Bay Festival full on the go in Pringle Bay, the Hack Group gathered at Droster’s Gat on 30 April 2017. Despite the holiday and festive atmosphere, a well-motivated group moved to the intersection of Barbara and Bobby roads in Pringle Bay. The hack group started clearing plot 728. The infestation was mainly Rooikrantz and Port Jackson trees. What made this hack difficult was the amount of coppicing that was encountered. Each stump had to be dug out before it could be cut and poisoned. Our “explorer” came up with…
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by KBergReserve

GREEN GOLD: LOOKING BACK FOR A HEALTHIER AND SUSTAINABLE FUTURE – AN OVERVIEW OF SOUTH AFRICA’S MEDICINAL PLANT RESOURCES (PART 1)

-Dr Gary Stafford This article is the first of a two-part series by Dr Gary Stafford on South Africa’s medicinal plant resources. “The extraordinary floristic diversity in southern Africa is not only one of the region’s greatest natural assets, but also one of the botanical wonders of the world.” Regions of floristic endemism in southern Africa: a review with emphasis on succulents (Van Wyk and Smith, 2001). Dr Gary Stafford was born in Harare, Zimbabwe and studied botany and ethnobotany (the scientific study of the traditional knowledge and customs of a people concerning plants and…
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by KBergReserve

WALKS PLANNED FOR 2017

Saturday 22 April 2017: Hangklip Ecologial Corridor No, it’s not a mistake. Botsoc Kogelberg walks are usually on the third Saturday of each month, except that the third Saturday of April this year is on Easter Saturday, right in the middle of the Easter weekend. That’s why we’ll be walking the following Saturday, 22 April. Here’s what we’ll be doing and where we’ll be going: Looking for new life, monitoring the Hangklip Ecological Corridor In March we monitored the recovery of the Western Coastal Shale Band vegetation in the Kleinmond Mountain Nature Reserve. In April…
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