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Zandvlei Trust Spring Talks – Entrepreneurial Shark Science
How a pandemic created opportunity in conservation.
Justin Blake
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Zandvlei Trust Spring Talks – Immersive Ocean Conservation Education
Connecting young minds to the ocean via community-level conservation and transformative experiences.
Katherine Wallis and Kelly Gilmour
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Zandvlei Trust Spring Talks – Science, poetry and nature
We owe it to our children, ourselves and the Earth to get the environmental message across. Let the voice of poets come to the rescue! – Dr Ian MacCallum
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Zandvlei Trust Spring Talks – 2022 Program
We are excited about our upcoming Zandvlei Talks Programme. A whole week of fascinating talks and a great opportunity to learn more about the vlei.
The series of talks takes place during school holidays so also a wonderful opportunity for high school students interested in finding out more about careers working with the environment.
When: 26 September to 1 October 2022
Where: The Lookout, Promenade Road, Zandvlei
Bookings: info@zandvleitrust.org.za
No cost, but donations welcome.
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BoSSIES: People are Doing it for The Strandveld
The BoSSIES project was started in 2007 as a partnership between the Zandvlei Trust and the City of Cape Town. The idea was to plant indigenous species along local sidewalks with the aim of reconnecting people with – not just nature as it is, but nature as it once was here.
Cape Flats Dune Strandveld used to cover just about all the land between the mountains and the sea around us, but most of it has been lost to urbanisation. Much less than half the original extent of this now highly endangered vegetation type remains, with only about 14 percent of that conserved. A good example of the success of the earlier plantings is along Axminster Road, near Thesen’s footbridge on the southeastern side of the estuary outflow in Muizenberg.
In times past the vegetation around here attracted animal herds and provided enough grazing for the VOC to establish Het Posthuys in order to protect the cattle herds it kept around the “zand vlei”. (At the time of the first British invasion the post holder was one Sergeant Muys, standing guard in the shadow of Muysen se berg).
The typical structure of the Dune Strandveld includes numerous evergreen trees and shrubs, bulbs, restios and grasses. The most common trees are milkwood, sea guarri, Cape camphor, candlewood, wild olive and coastal silkybark. The most common large shrubs are blombos, bietou and rhus dune current. In springtime smaller plants including species of geraniums, sour figs and many types of daisies paint the surroundings in a multi-coloured palette and provide forage for many birds and insects.
The BoSSIES indigenous Strandveld planting along Axminster Road in Muizenberg In truth the BoSSIES wagon hit a major pothole some years back and went wheels up. However, it has recently been restored to good running order by FynbosLIFE volunteer Helen Mitchell, along with help from the Zandvlei Trust (both are NPOs, or not-for-profit organisations).
One of Helen’s priorities is to plant locally indigenous material along Main Road in Lakeside (more or less the roadside opposite Pick-n-Pay and the Lakeside fire station) with the aim of linking the Westlake Conservation area with the natural vegetation on the mountainside and the vlei margin.
The dream is that in time local residents will take up the call and begin planting indigenous Strandveld sidewalks and converting their own lots from “English country gardens” and water unwise and labour intensive lawns into wildflower paradises. Imagine! Helen has plans to award “fynbos champion” plaques to people who plant indigenous pavements and gardens in our area.
From time to time we, members of the Zandvlei Trust, as well as any and all other local residents will be called upon to assist not only with BoSSIES planting events, but also to fund the plants and plantings themselves: plants need to be purchased, the sites must be prepared, and our volunteer cannot live on bread and fynbos alone. For the record the name is an acronym for Biodiversity of Suburban Sidewalks for Indigenous Ecosystem Sanctuaries.
If you are in a position to assist this project financially it would be most appreciated – any amount would be welcomed. Please make payments to the Zandvlei Trust, Nedbank account number 1030882339 (branch code 198765). Please mark your contribution “Bossies”. – Peter Kruger
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FynbosLIFE: Where There’s Fynbos, There’s Life
By Caitlin Von Witt
Wintertime means planting season and so it’s been all systems go for us these past few months.
In March FynbosLIFE was contracted by the internationally funded “SOS Rapid Response” active restoration project run by Friends of Tokai Park, for the project’s revegetation component. Since then we have cultivated over 10,000 plants – many of them Species of Conservation Concern and some even new to horticulture – at the Cape Flats Fynbos Nursery.
Part of our job was to train 12 project interns, which we did through a theory-and-practical course on restoration horticulture and revegetation, fieldwork and two days’ work-shadowing at the nursery in Lakeside. In June we began planting one of the identified wetland sites.
Shortly after this, we ran our first two seven-week FundaFynbos courses. One of these culminated on 21 June, when the group of girls from Muizenberg Junior School presented their fynbos “stories of change” – thus officially becoming FynbosLIFE Veld Sisters.
The programme, led by our environmental educator Victoria Burnett, focusses on developing mindfulness through nature. All activities take place in outdoor classrooms known as Veld Circles. Next term it’s time for the boys from Muizenberg Junior to learn about local biodiversity at the Zandvlei Strandveld Circle.
And then there is BoSSIES: The Revival! BoSSIES is a sidewalk biodiversity “stepping stone” project started by Zandvlei Trust members back in 2007.
Between then and 2012 seven strategic sidewalks were planted as a partnership between the Trust and City of Cape Town. After a 10-year hiatus, the project is enjoying a new lease of (fynbos) life, spearheaded by FynbosLIFE volunteer Helen Mitchell.
In late June, together with Zandvlei Trust volunteers and Vrygrond’s Eco- buddies, a section of the Westlake Gardens sidewalk flowerbed was local-indigenised! Volunteers planted specially selected indigenous plants in an innovative interactive planting experience designed by Helen. The next – funded by the Kirstenbosch Branch of the Botanical Society – took place in mid-July near the Sea Scout Base in Lakeside.
At the beginning of July we planted our long-awaited Strandveld rehabilitation project at Surfer’s Corner. The empty garden beds had been were cleared of weeds last year and planted with sour fig (Carpobrotus edulis). This preliminary planting prepared the soil for indigenous Strandveld species, which we selected and grew at our nursery.
Finally, KuruFynbos, our fynbos-inspired “awareness through art” internship programme (funded by the Mapula Trust) is going strong. The project’s first sculpture of the Critically Endangered Cape Flats ranger butterfly was made possible by funding from the Zandvlei Trust and Angela MacPherson in 2020.
The latest sculptures by Angela and her team are nearing completion. These shine a light on one of our freshwater fish species, the Cape galaxias, the survival of which is threatened by urban expansion and resulting habitat loss (not least concrete canalisation and pollution of our river systems).
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The Quandary of the Pondweed
It is no secret that our beautiful vlei is facing serious challenges which appear to have increased rather drastically over the past few years. Sewage leaks (mainly) have caused an overload of nutrients into the system, resulting in murky water, a shift in aquatic plant growth and often leaving homes on the Marina enveloped by rotting, floating plant matter.
This leaves us all concerned as we face both the environmental and human health risks that come with this form of pollution. So, what makes pondweed – Stuckenia pectinata – so important?
Pondweed grows seasonally, with dense beds forming in summer, which then begins to die-off towards winter. During winter the pondweed hibernates, and its growth is triggered in early summer by changes in light and water temperature. It is a food source for many aquatic birds (e.g. coots) and provides refuge for marine fish and aquatic invertebrate species. The pondweed absorbs nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, through its roots and its leaves.
It is increasing concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in the water that drives the algal blooms we have witnessed with increasing regularity in recent years. Algal and phytoplankton blooms prevent sunlight from entering the water. This results in the death of aquatic plant life which are decomposed by bacteria that use up all the oxygen in the water and put the ecosystem at risk of becoming uninhabitable for many organisms. Therefore, a healthy population size of S pectinata is probably central to helping prevent this from happening.
There are multiple sources of nutrient pollution into Zandvlei Estuary, including sewage pollution, fertilizer and stormwater runoff. The rubble weir at the estuary mouth was lowered a few years ago with the aim to increase salinity and flushing the system. The subsequent increase in salinity has benefitted the fish in the estuary, but it also may be the driver behind the pondweed decline.
I have been a Marina resident all my life and I am currently a research student at UCT. My current research project aims to improve the understanding of current environmental factors operating in Zandvlei including nutrient levels, water temperature, salinity, water clarity, dissolved oxygen and phytoplankton abundance. It will also address the nutrient removal capacity of the pondweed that used to be prevalent in the estuary, but which has recently declined significantly.
I will use an experiment to determine whether, or to what extent, this decline is due to the increase in salinity over the past few years. This should give a deeper understanding of the potential role that S pectinata pondweed plays as a natural nutrient sink (absorber) and determine whether the current regime of salinity levels needs to be reassessed in the management of the Zandvlei Estuary.
I hope my research will contribute to theoretical and practical solutions in the management of the Zandvlei Estuary, and show the way for the balanced co-existence of humans and the waterways we have all come to love and appreciate.
Kelly is currently an MSc student in Marine Biology at University of Cape Town. Her research is supported by the Zandvlei Trust as well as Orms Photographic www.ormsdirect.co.za.
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Pump Stations – Getting Pumped Up
In early August the rusting Clifton Road pump completely failed and Muizenberg Beach had be closed while Council fixed it and did its best to “honey suck” the fetid flow. You could smell the $#!% around there for days.
Failing sewage pump stations have been the bane of lives for years now. Just the other week a station alongside the Westlake River died and for two days effluent poured into the river causing serious fish die-offs.
Latest news is that the CoCT plans to spend R70-million this financial year upgrading pump stations across the city, on top of the R40-m last year. The latest upgrades will include the Raapkraal station in Tokai and Clifton Road in Muizenberg.
The upgrades include, astonishingly, security camera systems, concrete fencing, alarm systems, guardhouses with guards and “physical repellent systems”.
Vandals, it seems never sleep: recently Wallacedene (Kraaifontein) pump station was torched by arsonists and electrical and mechanical equipment completely destroyed. Theft and destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure costs the city – and us – many millions every year and the problems that flow from that.
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How the “litter monsters” were born
Previous chair of the Trust, David Muller, spearheaded the move to create art-installation litterbins at the litter hot spot of Thesen’s Bridge across The Narrows near the estuary mouth. They were supposed to be otters, but turned out the artist-welder Innocent Kasanhayi had no idea what an otter looked like. When a little girl walking with her parent commented, “look Daddy, a monster”, thus was the term “litter monsters” coined for the two bins at either end of the bridge.
While they have resulted in a marked improvement of the litter situation there, street pickers and others continue to damage them so they had to be heavily re-inforced. That done, Innocent is now working on the “litter fish” we plan to install at that litter jamboree hot-spot, also known as the Lakeside picnic area. That done, we are thinking of a litter campaign for the entire vlei area. The theft of signs is, however, a concern: you might have noticed the reserve’s information boards (which were long in the making) – got up one night and walked some time ago.
So far the best slogan we have come up with is “each one pick some” with icon images of walkers, joggers, dog walkers etc each carrying a litter bag. If you have a better slogan we’re sure we can find a prize for you.
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Litterers Never Sleep
The metal litter grille upstream of Marina da Gama: unfortunately theft of the surrounding traps results in overspill of trash that has to be caught downstream. The planned bio-filter will be situated between here and our current nets. Although we have not been so visible as in the recent past, members of the Trust have not been sleeping. Neil Young taught us that rust never sleeps and neither – it turns out – do our neighbouring garbage disposers upstream who send us a never-ending flood of rubbish down mainly the Sand and Langvlei canals.
The litter nets near the Sand River mouth, originally installed and managed by Marina resident Mike Ryder, have to be cleaned out each and every week and after heavy rains more often; otherwise or our beloved vlei would be awash with trash. It’s dirty work for sure, but someone has to do it: that someone is us, with generous funding from all of you.
What happens when it rains: these are the litter nets near the mouth of the Sand River, on Wildwood Island, that we have to clear every week of the year.