Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) commemorated Freedom Day by appealing to residents to take greater care of the environment and change environmental behaviours.
Edenvale residents the Huang siblings, Sky (7) and Sunny (5) are JCPZ’s newest eco-warriors, who collected fallen leaves in Cyrildene for composting. The leaves provide a golden carpet along tree-lined streets in autumn.
Sky and his sister Sunny enjoyed putting leaves into bags and said, “Trees are important for us to breathe and if there are no trees, we will die and so will the animals.”
During autumn and winter, City Parks, which manages the city’s open spaces and tree canopy, receives an increase in the number of requests in winter for the removal of trees due to falling leaves.
Requests vary from:
• The shedding of leaves are a nuisance
• Fallen leaves are damaging gardens, lawns and pools
• The tree needs to be removed as it blocks out sunlight or that the tree is a threat to security.
These requests are unwarranted and compound the concerns of a fast ageing treescape that is exposed to:
• Opportunistic diseases such as the Polyphagous Shothole Borer (PSHB)
• Increased development and urbanisation
• Inclement and erratic weather.
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“Freedom Day must serve as a reminder that as residents, we have a right to healthy spaces; however, that right comes with a responsibility to care for the environment,” said MMC for community development Clr Margaret Arnolds.
Arnolds said this can be done by adopting more caring behaviours and shifting mindsets. Residents are encouraged to compost fallen leaves and to refrain from setting leaves alight. They should also be aware that the City of Johannesburg will only remove dead or uprooted street trees.
To help grow the CoJ’s award-winning manmade tree canopy, residents can plant fruit and indigenous trees in private spaces.
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