It is time to renew your membership
Revitalising Westville
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WESTVILLE CONSERVANCY www.westvilleconservancy.blogspot.com
Email: conservancywestville@gmail.com
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July 2013
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Number 2, 2013
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Identify yourself in the reference line of the deposit slip, thank you.
Westville Conservancy
Nedbank Branch No. 138026
Account No. 1380078083
It is time to renew your membership
Please fill out and return the attached Membership form
R30 for a scholar or pensioner
Family R50
School or organisation R150
Life membership R1,000
Revitalising Westville
WESTVILLE CONSERVANCY
www.westvilleconservancy.blogspot.com
Email: conservancywestville@gmail.com
July 2013
Number 2, 2013
What we do
Alien Invasive Plant (IAP) eradication
M13 Roadway IAP clearing and replanting with indigenous plants
Revitalising Westville – reclaiming neglected public spaces for indigenous planting
Monitoring environmental issues in Westville
Building up plant stock and growing rarer locally indigenous plants
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Get Involved
Donate plants
Join work parties
Donate compost
Lend us your gardener
Donate money
For details contact Jenni Bell: 0824874939
Report back from our AGM
This scintillating event must have been the best-attended Annual General Meeting in any voluntary organisation’s history. We had to close the entrance to the parking as the hall was filled to capacity. While Dr Debra Roberts had taken severely ill at the last moment, the hundreds of attendees, mostly new faces, saw a presentation on the work of the Westville Conservancy over the last year.
All office bearers and committee members stood for re-election. While the rest may be hard to believe, we are most sincere about our gratitude to all our members, our sponsors and special benefactors, Councillor Warren Burne, Ziggy Muller from the City, and we look forward to your continued support in turning Westville around.
We are especially thrilled to have received a donation of R15,000 from the Westville Environmental Trust to promote, foster and advance environmental and waste management in Westville and areas adjourning and impacting on the Westville area.
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Alien Invader Plant Eradication
Our number one priority has to be the eradication of invasive alien plants.
Here in in Westville, the worst invaders are the Syringa tree, Balloon vine, Bauhinia trees, Triffid weed (Chromolaena odorata), Madeira Vine (Anredera cordifolia) and (left to right): Ageratum, Mexican sunflower, Canna, Lantana, Pompom, Widelia and fountain grass.
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We have regular work parties and Patty Mankowski organises spray parties to tackle particular infestations. Recent expeditions tackled Edgbaston and Attercliffe Roads.
Invasive alien plants are a major threat to biodiversity, human livelihoods and economic development. IAPs cost South Africans tens of billions of rand annually in lost agricultural productivity and resources spent on their management and threaten our wetlands, grasslands and water sources. Many IAPs are products of unwise and unintentional plant introductions (“but it’s so pretty…”) but there is today no excuse for being ignorant.
Be vigilant and be informed. These plants spread so quickly that fast action is the only cost-effective option. Do not be afraid to tackle your neighbours on invasive plants – if you don’t they’re going to end up in your garden.
Contact Patty Mankowski at mankowski@absamail.co.za or 0791815274 to join a work party,
Rob Jamieson from Invasive Vegetation Management Services at rjamieson@absamail.co.za or 0837770872 for specialised removals,
Clive Walker at clivewalker@telkomsa.net or 0728385834 for a quote.
RON DANIEL TACKLING BALLOON VINE INFESTATION, N3
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Our sponsors
Westville Boys’ High School
Lomas-Walker Attorneys
Westville Veterinary Hospital
Inspect-a-Home
Lion’s Club
Hi-Q
M13 Roadway
We are nearing completion of a thorough sweep of the 9km stretch of the M13 from the N2 at
Westwood to Paradise Valley.
Major clean-up of invasive alien plants took place in June
between Westwood and Attercliffe Road bridge, including
a heavily infested area between Rockdale bridge and
Waterfall Rd, and an area between the Broadway
underpass at the first glide-off to Glendale Rd, as well as
the underpass at the end of Essex Terrace. Rob
Jamieson of Invasive Vegetation Management Services
reports that a number of small to medium invader trees
and Bougainvilla were treated or cut, and wherever
possible, spraying with suitable herbicide was carried
out. A great number of bags of litter were removed and
glass and cans recycled.
M13 Sponsors
We thank Trevor Hall at Westville Boys’ High
School for renewing the school’s support, and Hi-Q for coming on board as a
new sponsor!
TREATED BALLOON VINE, ESSEX TERRACE
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Transforming the Ugly and Neglected
Traffic Islands
A senior Parks and Gardens official who lives in Westville recently got his staff involved at the community garden at the Jan Hofmeyr/Blair Atholl traffic island. Apparently the brown of organic material left to mulch was offensive to his sight (and the balloon vine, Syringas and other Invasive Alien Plants all around Westville are not?), so a sudden burst of activity ensued with a big pile of compost being dropped off as well as a few Parks and Gardens staff. However, they did not return to finish and in total only managed to prepare about 18m2 over the 3 days they worked there. Nevertheless, it has helped, and as a voluntary non-profit organisation, totally reliant on donations from already taxed and rate paying residents, we are indeed grateful.
Once the work involving the piping and piles of soil dug up by Metro Electricity contractors is finally resolved, planting should be able to commence properly again.
On the opposite bank, where the fly-off joins the M13, the Aloe arborescence planted earlier in the year obliged to flower. Planting aloes seems to be working in keeping the brush cutters away from obliterating everything on the bank in their using desert effect style, and some natural grasses now are left to feed the birds in winter.
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Norfolk Terrace Bus Stop
Privately funded by the Conservancy, the rehabilitated central Westville bus stop.
Monitoring the Environment in Westville
We actively monitor sites where environmental concerns are brought to our attention, and play a facilitating role between the community and the City to address these
We keep our Ward Councillors up to date on issues of environmental concern which they represent at Interdepartmental Liaison meetings
Most pressing of these are the proliferation of invasive aliens and generally the poor state of environmental management all across Westville. Our once beautiful suburb is rated as among the most environmentally degraded and with our political representatives, we are renewing our Revitalise Westville campaign.
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Palmiet River Watch
Lee D’Eathe has been instrumental in setting up the Palmiet River Watch. Folk who live, work and play on the river, all the way from where the Palmiet River joins the Umgeni River at 0km, to its source in Manors at ±22.50 km, are working together with officials to locate and stop undesirable activates and water pollution.
A good working relationship is being developed with officials, with a commitment to respond to the issues as they arise; and they have already had some successes.
By communicating with one another, property owners along the Palmiet River determine the important details and roughly where the pollution has entered the river; and in this way, meaningful complaints are being submitted to the relevant authority to investigate, refer, follow-up and conclude with a report back.
Lee reports that there are now a total of 53 points that are covered with individuals with a vested interest in our river environment.
SMS’s, phone calls, emails and particularly WhatsApp are proving very effective tools for rapid communication. Contact Lee on 083 461 5964 or BusinessUnusualLee@gmail.com
UNAUTHORISED DUMPING INTO THE RIVER
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This is YOUR Suburb!
You need to become part of any change for the better. Protect your investment in Westville. Stop just complaining and DO something - get involved.
We are a few volunteers with limited time and resources. Support the Westville Conservancy to make it more effective and get actively involved.
Make your concerns known to your councillor and the responsible Municipal Department.
Important contacts:
Manisha Arbuckle
Horticulturist, Parks and Gardens 031 3116632
Warren Burne
DA Councillor
0833266633
warrenburnecllr@gmail.com
Tim Brauteseth
DA Councillor
ward18@ethekwini.org
Report Back: Mkhula Road off Maryvale - Roads Department site
A crisis meeting was convened at the beginning of May to bring to the City’s attention, the Roads Department in particular, the issues regarding the site, which local residents had for long struggled to have addressed.
Most urgent among these were the stability of the slopes of the dump site, the dumping of bitumen, concrete and soil rubble into river catchment area, the proliferation of invasive alien plants, the dumping of plastic and other non-re-usable or non-degradable substances by contractors and the public, and the lack of security.
UNSTABLE SLOPES OF DUMPED MATTER INTO THE CATCHMENT AREA
It was resolved at the meeting, that the encroaching bank to be moved back approximately 10-15m, stabilised and that the site would be cleaned up by stock piling all contractors materials on one side.
CONSERVANCY AND RESIDENTS MEET WITH THE CITY
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The City would also from now on desist from any further dumping on the ravine catchment side of the property, and all invasive alien plants were to be treated and removed, with regular follow ups to prevent regrowth. Signage prohibiting dumping was to be erected, and extra security measures were to be implemented.
Development of Westville CBD
Reading for the first time in the Highway Mail about the planned development, the immediate concerns that sprang to mind were about the lack of stakeholder consultation, the increase in development leading to increased traffic, hard surfaces, pollution, malls, heat island effect and ugly verges like that outside Toyota, all finally destroying the last vestiges of a “village feel” that Westville used to aspire to.
The R5.3m is largely for upgrading the pavements of these roads (some fancy pavements!). While stakeholder consultation had apparently taken place the previous couple of years, the Westville Conservancy is now registered as a formal stakeholder on the City’s database.
In June we met with the City’s team responsible for the plans to upgrade the Westville central business district, encompassing Church and Westville roads for now, with plans to address Jan Hofmeyr Rd at a later stage. We expressed concern at the meeting about the landscaping elements, increase in traffic with little regulation, as well storm water run- off from the hardened surfaces in town and especially if the area of hardened surfaces is to increase.
It has been noticed over the years, that there has been a marked increase in flood heights and the swiftness that the water reaches due to the increase of hardened surfaces resulting from roads and infrastructure development. The scouring of the banks has caused damage to private property as well as Municipal roads and paving. Besides this, the flooding and scouring has caused a noticeable drop in biodiversity of these river systems, both plants and animals have decreased in specie numbers as well as in number representing those species still extant. Eels and fish are no longer as numerous as
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they were with the result that the bird life too has been affected not to mention the mongooses, crabs and invertebrates.
Jean Senogles requested information regarding the consideration by the engineers involved in the plans of building attenuation ponds down the tributaries and in the smaller flood plains to hold back some of the immediate run-off. These ponds have proved to be most satisfactory in the upper reaches of the Mississippi and in the State of Massachusetts.
According to Geoff Tooley (Pr Eng), the City’s Manager: Catchment Management, the City is looking at master drainage plans for the rivers in our city, precisely for these reasons. For the Palmiet, possible attenuation sites have been identified. The plan is to provide attenuation where possible in order to reduce the peak floods created by all the hardened surfaces. This is obviously more difficult in areas which are almost fully developed as is the case with the Palmiet river surroundings.
There is no doubt that tired Westville does require investment in its renewal. We do however continue to question the process for integrated planning from an environmental perspective and the allocation of resources.
These resources are even more startling in their magnitude when our Parks and Gardens team has no proactive plan for combatting alien invasive plants in Westville and are severely understaffed.
Other issues the Conservancy has been monitoring include abandoned and derelict properties, notably in Glenridge and Cedar Roads, which pose health and safety risks and are usually overrun by invasive alien plants, as well as the state of the bus shelters around Westville. Where they haven’t totally collapsed, they generally lack seating and are in a state of disrepair. At the top of Blair Atholl Rd, the slimy pavement and water seepage has at last been addressed. The icing on the cake for Jenni Bell, after years of wet slime and ‘creep’ onto the road, was watching a mother push her child in a pram on the road, into the oncoming traffic, to avoid
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the pavement!
A sub-soil drain behind the sidewalk was constructed a couple of weeks ago, once the Metro Electricity had finished laying the new cabling to prevent ground water flowing onto the sidewalk. Once the Metro Electricity contractors have completed the work and tidied up the excess soil and mess, landscaping can commence, and we are hoping this will be a joint effort with Parks and Gardens. We thank Ziggy Muller, senior manager for the City, most sincerely for ensuring all these issues are addressed, and for keeping us constantly updated.
Invasive Alien Plants – Kloof Conservancy takes on the State in Court
National government has failed to implement regulations on invasive species under the National Environmental: Biodiversity Act (NEMBA) which was promulgated in 2004. This has resulted in the delayed the revision of the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act (CARA).
We support and applaud the Kloof Conservancy, representing 300 members, for taking on the state in what it says is a "public interest" court battle to force the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs to properly implement "emasculated legislation" aimed at eradicating invasive alien plants. The application, brought by the Kloof Conservancy, was set down to be argued in the Durban High Court in June but was delayed by the state as it sought to supplement its papers, and the matter will probably now proceed in October.
The Kloof Conservancy is seeking to compel the Minister to publish – as he should have done by August 2006 – a national list of invasive species required by NEMBA, and to put in place practical steps, including the employment of environmental management inspectors, to give effect to the legislation.
For details, including copies of the Notice of Motion and the Founding Affidavit, visit the Kloof Conservancy website: www.kloofconservancy.org.za
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Indigenous Plant Nursery Network
The Conservancy now has a dedicated plant depot at the Parks and Garden premises, given the generous response to our appeal for plants for the revitalisation of various parts of Westville. If you would like to be part of the network of plantspeople and growers, giving us access to a wide range of locally indigenous plant material for planting at suitable public sites, please email Gertrud glomas@telkomsa.net or Jenni at jennib@icon.co.za. We are also acquiring rarer species, especially those threatened grassland species for propagating and planting in reclaimed areas.
Worth Subscribing to: The Indigenous Gardening Online Magazine http://www.theindigenousgardener.co.za/ The Indigenous Gardener on-line magazine is a beautiful one-of-a-kind digital gardening magazine for the thinking gardener. With each issue offering a diverse wealth of information... for only R18/month or R215 / year. 34 pages/100% indigenous ...all your indigenous/ sustainable gardening info.
Make a Note in your Diary
23 AUGUST - GRASSLANDS
On 23 August at 6 pm at the Frank Ferrer Hall, Palmiet Nature Reserve, we are hosting Dr Peter Ardington who will give an hour’s power point presentation on the state of the world’s grasslands. He will discuss environmental problems, climate change, desertification, erosion, game, livestock, grazing management and fire with many photographs and text slides.
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WESSA HIGHWAY BRANCH EVENTS
10 JULY
A guided Birdlife walk in Springside Nature Reserve on Wednesday 10th July Starting at 8.30am. Contact Sue on 031 765 6809 for further information.
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FRIDAY12th JULY
7.0pm for a 7.30 start for an extra special meeting at Westville Central Library.
In accord with the WESSA requirements we must hold an annual AGM meeting.
Our guest speaker will be the one and only PAT McKRILL.
Not only is Pat a very knowledgeable speaker on all things Natural, but also one of the most humorous of speakers. Many a professional comic would give his right arm to be able to entertain his audience as Pat does. Pat has called his talk “WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT” . The simplicity of Nature.
Come early, and don’t miss this one.
Augmented snacks and Wine/Fruit Juice. No charge but donations not refused.
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SATURDAY 13 JULY
First on Saturday 13th July, starting from the lovely old Farm House, now SPCA’s Tea Garden, at 10.0am.
An easy walk along good paths past the SPCA enclosures and grasslands, close to (but not too close) to the Gorge, passed the waterfall and through the forest and wetlands. Duration about 1½ hours.
The guide for this walk will relate the history of the area (now Kloof, Emberton, Gillits and surround) from 1800 to the present day.
Afterwards stop to enjoy the offerings of Marilyn’s Tea Garden to recoup your energy.
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The SPCA shops will also be open from 8.0am to noon.
SUNDAY 14 JULY
The second walk will be the next day, Sunday 14th July starting from the SPCA car park near the old Farm House. 8.0am for an 8.30 start.
This walk will follow the same path as Saturday’s walk, but this time the guide will concentrate on the Flora and natural vegetation of the reserve.
NB. The Tea Room and SPCA shops will not be open on the Sunday, but bring your own picnic and enjoy the quiet surroundings.
In both cases there is no charge, but donations towards the further repairs to the remaining bridge and maintenance of the reserve would be appreciated.
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21 JULY
Sunday 21st July, a short guided walk in Kloof Gorge. **********************************************************************************************
Leave the land in
better condition
than when you
found it!
Dedicated to Lynne Thompson
