Alberts Farm alien invasive plants get the boot
ALBERTS FARM – Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo has started to remove masses of black locusts from the park.
To mark National Invasive Week, Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, is undertaking a mega-blitz to eradicate alien invasive plants in Alberts Farm.
The campaign, launched in October 2015, aims to educate communities on the importance of controlling the spread of alien invasive plants and their adverse effects on the environment.
Invasive alien plants are plants that are non-native to an ecosystem and which may cause economic, environmental harm and affect human health.
On 19 October, stakeholders descended upon Alberts Farm, to get rid of black locust trees that are spreading across the park.
Colleen Rood, the chairperson of Friends of Alberts Farm Conservancy, said the committee has become very concerned about the expansion of the alien invasive plants.
She said over and above environmental issues, these locusts helped create shelter for displaced people and created a possible crime element.
“We also want to protect the indigenous biodiversity of the park,” said Rood who also brought learners from her Northcliff High School classroom, said the campaign will make a difference, but that follow-ups are needed. She said City Parks will follow up again in March.
Ward 86 councillor, Philip Kruger, said alien invasives has an impact on the social welfare of residents who wish to visit the park. It makes patches of land unsafe to visitors, he said.
Nonhlanhla Sifumba, MMC for Community Development, said alien invasive plants impact adversely on biodiversity, including the decline or elimination of native plants through competition or transmission of pathogens (disease carriers) and the disruption of local ecosystems and their functions.
“Alien invasive plants further exacerbate poverty and threaten development through their impact on agriculture, forestry, fisheries and natural systems, which are an important basis of peoples’ livelihoods in South Africa and other developing countries,” she said.
The alien invasive campaigns championed by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo and its partners will continue throughout the year in various wards across the city.
The City pleads with residents to look out for the yellow flag (Iris Pseudacorus) and the Himalayan raspberry (Rubus Ellipticus) in their gardens and parks and help eradicate them.
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