Section of Springside Road gets a deserved make over
Some of the natural grasslands adjacent to the road were recently cleared of invasive plants, enabling the natural veld to re-establish itself.
THE Hillcrest Conservancy, together with Lindsay Gray from the School of Garden Design, are transforming the verges along Stonewall Road and Hilltop Road in Hillcrest.
This section of Springside Road consists of seriously neglected verges heavily overgrown with numerous invasive-type plants. This section of road also affords access to the high school as well as a number of housing estates, it is the only access to Springside Nature Reserve and is an important road in Hillcrest.
Many of the adjacent properties are also heavily infested with a solid mass of terpentine trees and invasive plants, which negatively impact on the ability to maintain Springside Reserve as a pristine natural biodiversity area.
The Hillcrest Conservancy has been active in addressing this issue, and has, with limited funds, been successful in some areas. Some of the natural grasslands adjacent to the road were recently cleared of invasive plants, enabling the natural veld to re-establish itself.
“Some of the residents were approached and even offered to contribute financially towards removing some of the tall gum trees in the area, as these were also considered dangerous,” said George Victor, chairman of the Hillcrest Conservancy.
This particular patch of gum trees was recently felled by council after the conservancy had lobbied for this for three years – these trees affected the growth of the indigenous trees growing in that area and had also started snapping during high winds.
Lindsay Gray offered to assist in drawing up a design for sections of the road verge in an effort to retain the indigenous nature of the area and afford the wildlife protected areas of refuge.
She has previously been involved in voluntarily setting out and planting the indigenous verge at the reserve entrance and was keen to extend the work done there. A layout was designed for additional adjacent sections of the road to compliment the work done at the reserve entrance.
Gray, together with resident, Sybil Forbay, set about looking at ways of selectively removing some of the invasive verge plants and replacing these with indigenous vegetation.
The plan was to make the area as natural as possible and at the same time keep the area safe.
“The work is being done by trainees who are gaining valuable skills in addition to providing a service to the community,” said Victor.
