Since early in December 2015 we have been working with 9 EPWP workers on identifying invasive problem plants in Kloofendal, mainly in the Wetland area, and how to remove them.
I have developed a booklet specifically on identification of these plants and with the help of Wendy Carsten from Melville Koppies, Andrew Hankey specialist horticulturalist from Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens, Dave Kirkby specialist horticulturalist, previous owner of Top Turf and the various relevant books, I have included ways on how these plants can be removed from the reserve, not an easy task as some of the plants need poisoning which we can’t do in the Wetland. So far the Wetland booklet has 39 species named with photographs and some dried specimen to make identification easier. The “Common problem and invasive plants in Kloofendal” booklet is a document on the whole reserve, on which I have been working on and off since 2009, which has 60 species described in it which are the more common ones in the reserve, there are others which haven’t been included as they are not considered a problem yet.
Jörgen Hammarström from the Friends Kloofendal has assisted in working with the EPWP group. Jörgen for several years has been leading alien invasive plant control with a small dedicated team of volunteers (not the EPWP workers) every second Saturday of the month, as well as on his own spending much time on invasive alien plant control in the reserve. Please do support him and his team second Saturday each month 8h30 – 11h00.? It is actually quite a rewarding job, seeing how much can be done in that time. Jörgen can be contacted at 083-546-1199.