Alien at a time
Can enjoy pristine fynbos and forest. By
nity. The teams are fully supported, with training, uniforms and good equipment. Next year, we’re hoping to expand to 12 contracted teams with 60 men in all.”
Table Mountain National Park consists of about 25,000ha and Sanparks has mapped it into about 1,000 units. Working for Water employs women to clear aliens in these units but their pay is low and, it has been alleged, their enthusiasm matches their pay packet.
Sugarbird pays well and, according to Van Hoogstraten, this builds enthusiasm, pride and interest in the work. Sanparks reciprocates, providing herbicide, permits and planning to do the clearing work effectively.
Part of the Sugarbird system is to link paid hackers with local community hackers who are generally highly skilled and knowledgeable people who hack for the love of it.
There’s even a Helihack team that uses a chopper to get to inaccessible places. They’re dropped in, armed with chainsaws, and have removed thousands of pines from inaccessible places, risking their lives against invaders.
Hackers include a wide range
of people who hack as a labour of love. They give oversight, do follow-ups and offer encouragement to the paid guys for work well done.
One of those volunteers is Liz Sparg, who started the Rhodes Memorial/newlands Forest hacking group in 2020. She noticed the pine trees growing in the forest and got a permit from Sanparks to start clearing the area above the old zoo. She met Maya Naumann when volunteering at a hack on Lion’s Head and over time started working closely with the Sugarbird Project.
Another passionate volunteer is Anton Weers, who works in cloud computing and has been a hacker on and off for more than 20 years. When people want plants identified, he’s the man.
“They’re mostly Australian,” he says. “The climates are similar, but over there natural enemies inhibit their growth and reproduction. Here nothing stops them.
“Pines and gums were imported and grown in plantations for wood and paper production. Pine seeds are then blown high into the mountains, allowing them to spread rapidly. Gums were often used as firebreaks in addition to forestry.”
Port Jackson and rooikrans were planted on the Cape Flats to stabilise the sand. Bottlebrush – also Australian – are used as ornamental plants but often escape captivity and find the local conditions favourable.
Seeds like Port Jackson lie dormant when under other cover, but when there’s a fire that cover goes and the heat and smoke stimulates germination. The germination cues that stimulate fynbos seeds to germinate also work on the Australian acacias.
“I guess it’s a hobby,” says Weers reflectively, “but also it’s so stimulating personally when you come back to an area and it’s clear of aliens and pristine again.”
Van Hoogstraten agrees. “After the [University of Cape Town] fire, Port Jackson took over and it was a horror show. But the Rhodes Memorial team cleared it and now there are thousands of silver trees interspersed with pink watsonias. I cannot tell you what that feels like – it’s transformation on another level! You just can’t put a price on saving the Cape Floral Kingdom.”