Ecologist to herd Marloth to recovery

MARLOTH PARK – Marloth Park’s fauna and flora are not in sync. Rapid action is needed to solve the problem of overgrazing.

There is little time left.

The Marloth Park Property Owners Association (MPPOA) recently appointed Mr Ralf Kalwa, a wildlife ecologist of Rhengu Environmental Services, to assess the grazing potential of the area available to the antelope species in Marloth Park.
He will start shortly with the assessment.

Kalwa told Lowvelder that a management plan was formulated by consultants from the University of Pretoria (UP) in 2006, but it was not implemented as per the recommendations.

The 2006 plan had identified 15 monitoring points in Marloth Park.

Kalwa will monitor and re-evaluate the original 15 points to assess the changes in the grass species composition and determine the biomass available to the animals in 2015.

Kalwa commented, “Essentially one wants to determine whether the grass species composition at Marloth can carry the animals through the winter months in a sustainable way without affecting habitat health negatively, while maintaining biodiversity in all its facets and fluxes.”

Once the results of the survey are collated and analysed, a number of recommendations will be submitted.

Should there be a shortfall in the availability of grazing, certain animals will have to be removed to bring the current state of affairs in line with supply and demand.
Game removal methods include culling and capture.
“You can catch animals and translocate them to another reserve, or you can also look at selling game to neighbouring reserves.” Kalwa said he would not comment on what had gone wrong in the veld management in Marloth Park over the past 10 years, or why the grazing had deteriorated.

He said that he had advised the community that they needed to decide what they wanted.

“Do you want a zoo, where you will be responsible for the feeding of animals or do you want a natural conservancy where the number of animals is controlled in such a way that they can fend for themselves?”

Marloth Park residents voted for the second option and Kalwa told them that in that case he would undertake the surveys and submit an updated version of the original plan.

He also told Lowvelder, “I told the community that the veld rehabilitation was going to be a long process. Years of poor veld management cannot be rectified in one or two seasons.”

These assessments take place in March and the removal of animals will take place from May to August.