Environmentalist digs up reserve – for a good cause
A KNYNSA resident spent yesterday afternoon digging up parts of the Noetzie nature reserve.
But environmentalist Wendy Dewberry has not lost her mind – she is trying to prevent new fires from spreading along the Garden Route.
Dewberry said that fires burning underground could see a potential flare-up in the region.
A month ago, a huge blaze cut a swathe of destruction along the Garden Route‚ destroying tourist establishments‚ affecting an estimated 2 500 jobs and burning 846 homes in Knysna alone. Seven people died in the fires. “Usually an indigenous forest does not burn, but because of the extreme weather we are experiencing we had some fire in the forest,” Dewberry said.
“We received notice from SANParks that it will no longer be water-bombing the fires unless they are a threat, so any active fires underground will be left to burn out.
“The only thing that will help at this stage is about 15mm of rain.”
Dewberry said that SANParks‚ the municipality and some Pezula residents had spent last week digging in the conservatory to curb any fires that were smouldering underground.
“When I dug there‚ about a metre deep, the forest floor was black, which shows how deep and how long the fires had been burning,” she said.
“We had 6mm to 10mm of rain on Sunday which cooled down the active fires for now, but we need more rain to completely extinguish them.”
Working on Fire spokeswoman Lauren Howard said teams were monitoring the active fire lines along the Garden Route following flare-ups on Thursday.
“The fires in Knysna‚ Plettenberg Bay and the Swartberg have been contained‚” she said.