Romanskraal is an extensive property in the Langeberg mountains north of Albertinia owned by Chris Davies, where the Southern Cape Section of MCSA has enjoyed many hikes. But these magnificent mountains face an ongoing onslaught of invasive alien plants. While Chris has done some sterling clearing work at Romanskraal, recently with plenty of help from GCBR (Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve), he needs all the help he can get, especially with the follow up clearing of young trees. The MCSA South Cape Section stepped up on Saturday 5 September to assist in clearing an area on the property with plenty of widely-scattered young pine trees (which could be cut with hand saws). The area had been cleared of large pine trees a few years ago and was due for a follow up clearing of the young pines which had sprung up – now threatening to soon become a much bigger problem.
The Friday night before, most of the party camped at Chris’ rustic campsite, with a wonderful view, including the slopes we were to cover the next day. On Saturday morning we headed across the valley to begin our clearing. The team included MCSA members Sandy and Gary Cundhill, Mari Swart, Yvonne van den Berg, and Jacomi and Derek Odendaal and me, with Derek also bringing along a few additional young hands.
We split into four groups working different parts of target area and covering the ridgetop, mid- and lower slopes and with Derek and his extra hands working the furthest area beyond the ridge where some isolated pine trees awaited.
By 3 o clock we had covered plenty of ground and managed to take down well more than 500 trees and cleared an overall area of about 40 hectares. Congratulations to the team!
It was good to see that we caught the trees just in time before they had produced seeds, nipping in the bud the next wave of pine tree expansion across the area. Back at the campsite we had the added satisfaction of viewing and savouring our day’s work from a comfortable seat next to the braai fire. But we couldn’t get 100% relaxed because we could also see pine-clearing still needing to be done. An obvious next hack lies waiting – hopefully sooner than later.
Meet Leader ~ Donovan Kotze