Megan Taplin
The new manager of the Knysna section of the Garden Route National Park tells us about the challenges her team has faced since the wildfires last year.
Where does your love of the outdoors come from? I grew up in Cape Town and my love of nature was fed by trips to my grandfather’s smallholding at the foot of the Helderberg Mountains in Somerset West, where we went on long walks and watched birds and insects going about their daily lives. I was always concerned about the environment and about trying to save it from destruction. This felt like an insurmountable task as a child, but now as an adult it has been broken down into more realistic and manageable portions – I hope!
What does your day-to-day job entail? As an area manager, I am responsible for managing biodiversity, cultural heritage assets, the people who work in my area, the stakeholders who have an interest in the area and the financial and administrative business of conservation. The Knysna area incorporates the Knysna estuary and the forest – both indigenous forest and “exit areas”, where plantations have been cleared and handed over to SANParks to revert back to their natural state.
What challenges did you face after the Knysna fire? Some burnt parts are now bare slopes. Sediment runs off these slopes when we get rain and enters the estuary. This creates water-quality problems and affects the organisms in the estuary. The build-up of sediment on underwater plants impedes their growth, for example. There is also a lot of alien vegetation like black wattle and blackwood springing up in the burnt sections, because these invasive species have huge seed banks that are stimulated to germinate by fire. Some of the infrastructure at Harkerville was affected and we are working on rebuilding sections of the trails and ablutions at various picnic areas. Most of the hiking and mountainbike trails have already partially or fully reopened. This includes the two-day Harkerville Hiking Trail, although parts of the trail had to be rerouted.
What’s your favourite place in the Garden Route National Park? I’m still getting to know the park and there are so many. For now I’ll say the Noetzie estuary and river. Noetzie is a beautiful and tranquil place that is still relatively undeveloped. I visited Noetzie as a child and loved it as a holiday destination, but now I appreciate it even more considering how much development has happened along the Garden Route since then. I also love the forest with its stately old trees, some hundreds of years old. The Knysna Forest is one of the biggest continuous patches of indigenous forest remaining in South Africa – an asset worth conserving.
Other favourite national parks? Mountain Zebra National Park near Cradock in the Eastern Cape will always have a special place in my heart. I worked there as a park manager for five years. What makes it special? The wide open Karoo landscapes dotted with dramatic boulders and topped by brewing thunderclouds… The wildlife – it’s not a popular park so you won’t get traffic jams at animal sightings. While I was there, I also really enjoyed being involved with managing endangered species like cheetah and Cape mountain zebra. The best part of your job? Taking a step back and reminding myself that my team is helping to conserve a slice of biodiversity that you won’t find anywhere else on earth, so that our children’s great-grandchildren can enjoy it and benefit from it.
Hardest part? Dealing with the inevitable red tape and administration that goes along with managing finances and operations. It’s also challenging to deal with people who only care about their own concerns and don’t see the bigger picture.
Favourite holiday destination? Cape St Francis, where the kids and hubby can surf and enjoy the beach to their hearts’ content, and where it’s still safe for kids to ride their bikes and go on long walks.
Destination at the top of your wish list? It would have to be a trip to the Amazon to see all those fascinating birds and creatures I’ve seen on David Attenborough documentaries over the years. Or maybe the Maasai Mara. Or Alaska. Madagascar, Botswana, Chile, Peru… There are so many places to see and so little time – and money!
If I won the lotto… I’d pay off all of my family’s debts, build my dream house on a big plot somewhere along the Garden Route and take my husband Bruce and our two children on holidays to the places mentioned above. Then I’d start my own organisation focused on protecting some of the most vulnerable and threatened natural places and species in the world. It had better be a bumper draw! – Suzaan Hall