Community supports Bridgevale Valley planting project

A collaborative effort between the City's Parks Department and Enviro Fixers has seen the park transform in recent months.

Mom Preeya and her son Kiyaan Daya Naidoo helped plant trees at the Bridgevale Valley park recently.

THE North Durban community along with members of Enviro-Fixers Durban North made use of the rainy weather last weekend to help plant several new trees on a rehabilitated bank in the Bridgevale Valley park.

A collaborative effort between the City’s Parks Department and Enviro Fixers has seen the park transform in recent months with a new fence being installed as well as the removal of various alien invasive species.

Through the project, several indigenous grasses and trees have been planted but on Saturday, residents, worked on a bank that had been damaged by heavy rains in the past, explained Helen Koch of Enviro-Fixers.

Martin Kruger said he was happy to be part of the change at Bridgevale Valley park.

“When we started this project the key thing for us was getting the community involved and it was so awesome seeing families come out in the rain to help plant trees and species of plants as well. To help shore up the damaged bank which the Parks Department had levelled out we planted several indigenous trees some of which had been self-propagated and donated to our cause. With this project, the Parks Department were kind enough to donate some leftover trees and plants and we were only too happy to get our green fingers working. We hope that what we’ve done here will stabilise the bank even more,” Koch said.

Fellow member of the group and horticulturalist Jane Troughton, explained why the project was necessary.

“We planted several species of trees and plants including Halleria lucida, Baphia racemosa, Chionanthus falcatus, Thespesia acutiloba, Dovyalis caffra, Pappea capensis and Kraussia floribunda. I think Helen touched on how what we’ve planted has helped stitch the bank together so well and a lot of what was planted on Saturday is awesome trees for the birdlife which has flocked to the park since the rehabilitation project started. Everything we plant is indigenous and we mark them with orange ribbons to identify what is indigenous and what is alien invasive,” she said.