HOEDSPRUIT: Up, up and pines away

Invasive pine trees on the rugged and relatively inaccessible mountain tops of the Blyde River Canyon are a cause for concern among local conservation organisations. The Blyde Restoration Working Group has been established in order to map the pines and coordinate alien plant control operations.

The higher lying mountainous areas of the Blyde Catchment are largely covered by a mosaic of grassland and forest, which houses exceptionally large numbers of plant and animals species, including many rare and threatened species.

These high altitude areas along the escarpment also receive comparatively high rainfall (known as Strategic Water Source Areas) and are very important in terms of securing water flow to the hot and dry areas of the lower-lying Lowveld.

The threats posed by alien invasive plants in this area have prompted significant responses by various governments and private and civil society organisations.

Extensive efforts have been made in the area over the last two decades to control alien invasive plants and restore invaded areas.

Read: HOEDSPRUIT: Training a matter of life and death

The exceptionally rugged terrain created by the Blyde River Canyon and the Mpumalanga Escarpment has hampered control of pine invasions on several inaccessible mountain tops, including the well-known Three Rondavels in the Blyde River Canyon.

The high lying invasions also form a continuous seed source, spreading seeds over a large area downstream, and allowing re-invasion of areas that have previously been cleared.

This situation has significantly undermined ongoing control efforts in more accessible areas and hampered an integrated approach to dealing with alien invasive plants in all parts of the Blyde landscape and securing its water and biodiversity.

Through its work under the USAID-funded Resilience in the Limpopo Basin programme (RESILIM), the Association for Water and Rural Development (AWARD) has supported the establishment of the Blyde Restoration Working Group.

The Working Group is made up of various agencies and projects focused on alien invasive plants control and restoration in the Blyde Catchment and is composed of the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) Natural Resource Management Programmes (NRMPs), including Working for Water, High Altitude Teams (HAT), and Working on Fire, as well as the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency, the Kruger-to-Canyons Biosphere NPO (K2C), the Department of Agriculture Forestry & Fisheries, and SANParks and convened by AWARD.

With the support of the group, AWARD and HAT lead the development of an innovative proposal and clearing plan to secure funding for helicopter transport and the necessary camping gear to implement this plan.

This started in 2017 when AWARD carried out the mapping of pines on these mountains with the help of high resolution aerial photographs. The South African Air Force’s 19th Squadron also flew several group members onto one of these mountains to get a better understanding of the terrain and invasions in these areas.

This information allowed HAT to assess the effort and resources required to address these invasions, informing the proposal and clearing plan.

Funding was then secured at the beginning of 2018 by HAT and on July 19, the project was launched with two HAT teams being flown with all their gear onto Hebron Mountain by helicopter.

These two teams of 26 members then camped on the mountain for 12 days, followed by a change over by a further two teams for another 12 days. During this period, Guy Preston, the DEA Deputy

Director General for Environmental Programmes, also visited and addressed the teams on Hebron Mountain, highlighting the importance of the work that they were carrying out.

To date, approximately 1,700 hectares have been cleared, and the group of partners is currently looking for further sources of funding to continue the work.