City Parks fights off alien plants
JOHANNESBURG – National Invasive Species Week aims to raise awareness about plants which are harmful to the environment.
The Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo launched National Invasive Species Week at Juweel Park.
An invasive species is a plant, fungus or animal species that is not native to a specific location and which has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy or human health.
Landiwe Mashige from City Parks has been an integral part of the programme and said their goal is to eradicate invasive plants.
“This will result in an increase in bird life and a variety of invertebrates as well as create biodiversity. We do this by planting indigenous trees which feed such diverse biodiversity. This will, in turn, see an increase in safety and park usage because it will be clean for community members to be here,” Mashige said.
As part of the project, a 15m Mulberry tree, which is an invasive tree, was felled in a demonstration and a wild plum tree was planted in its place. The plum tree bears fruit and is frost resistance and is seen as a suitable replacement for the Mulberry tree.
The Klein Jukskei Greenbelt Initiative is a non-profit organisation and is privately funded through sponsorships and community involvement.
The organisation was established two years ago and has already removed 100 cubic metres of rubbish out of the river. It has also removed about 2 000 invasive trees and plants, while planting 450 indigenous trees in the process.
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