IN recent years a joint project between Enviro Fixers Durban North and the City’s Parks Department has seen Bridgevale Park transform into a safe green space.
Now the local NPO, run by a group of passionate residents uplifting and beautifying Durban North, is installing sleeper steps to make accessing the park much easier.
In the past the park had been the site of illegal dumping which was also severely infested with alien invasive species meaning residents could not use the valley.
Now thanks to the ongoing project, a one kilometre circular track has been cleared and work on the removal of some alien species has taken place in the last two years.
Enviro Fixers member, Helen Koch, explained why the new sleeper steps were needed.
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“Riaan de Jager, from a local company donated 30 full size sleepers which we are going to cut into half and then install to make steps. We will place them at the boundary fence of Goodholm Place and Old Mill Way in the hope that schools and residents will make greater use of the park and it will be easier to access.
“We will then take the leftover pieces down to Crusaders Sports Ground for them to use on the dog trails that we’ve worked on. We want the community to know with all the improvements being made to the space that Bridgevale Valley is a park open to everyone,” she said.
Koch added Enviro Fixers and the Durban North Conservancy’s Jane Troughton, were working together to remove the alien invasive species, like Inch weed.
“The Agricultural Research Council will be releasing Neolema beetles as a biological control for the alien invasive species Tradescantia fluminensis commonly known as Inch weed as it grows so rapidly. We are super excited as Bridgevale is clogged with this awful plant and its impossible to get rid of by hand. To assure people, the insect won’t cause further collateral damage because once the Tradescantia fluminensis is finished they have nothing to eat (they don’t eat our indigenous flora) and they die,” Troughton said.
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