Hacking of indigenous forest shows lack of quality control, says environmentalist
"When I see this damage, I see poor understanding of our city's ecology," Glenwood resident, Deon Braun.
UPPER Glenwood resident, Deon Braun has described the cutting back of vegetation around UKZN Howard College campus as the ‘unnecessary defacement of natural heritage’ and says he is saddened by the damage done to the indigenous forest.
Braun said he first noticed the indigenous plants had been cut back at the beginning of September.
He said a week later a trailer team arrived and cleared up all the felled branches.
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“I asked who had done the cutting, and a woman on site said it was a private contractor. I didn’t press to ask who had commissioned the job though. I would love to know, so we can name and shame and let these people know they need to treat our environment with more respect,” said Braun, who estimated that in total, 400m of indigenous forest was damaged along the perimeter of UKZN.
Local environmentalist, Crispin Hemson from Friends of Pigeon Valley, said he had also inspected the area and was very disturbed by what he saw.
“It seems that the area cut is municipal property and the municipality may well have contracted this out to a private contractor. If so, there is a total lack of quality control. Indigenous and alien vegetation have been equally cut; the alien vegetation will probably recover faster,” he said.
Hemson said this repeated a problem experienced earlier this year in Princess Alice Avenue, where a private contractor uprooted indigenous plants, the Buckweed (isoglossa wooddii), growing in the road islands.
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“What is needed is for the municipality to implement its own policy of removing alien plants and only trimming where necessary of indigenous vegetation. In this case the vegetation was crudely hacked right back,” he said.
Braun explained that nature did not require manicuring because, “she knows what she’s doing.”
“The undergrowth protects the ground from soil erosion and provides safe transit areas to our local wildlife, such as vervet monkeys and mongoose. When I see this damage, I see poor understanding of our city’s ecology and disregard or complete ignorance of our indigenous flora, which is shrinking daily as it is. The last thing we need is for our intellectual hubs to be party to damage to what little indigenous forest we still have left in Durban. Hopefully whoever was responsible will realise this error and publicly commit to never doing it again,” said Braun.
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