A walk up Cecilia Ridge

A few weeks ago I felt like a long view and some solitude, so I parked at Cecilia Forest and headed up Cecilia Ridge. It's an easy way up the montain with lovely views over the City.

Crassula coccinea - Klipblom

Protea speciosa - since I saw it at Silvermine for the first time, I'm seeing it everywhere. Funny that. The white hairs on the leaf margins seem distinctive.



And then I made a short detour to the De Villiers dam, which is looking rather surreal in its half-empty state. Ghostly white sandstone rocks.

The water is a beautiful tea colour, on account of the phenols and tannins found in fynbos. These chemicals leach out of decomposing plant matter in seeps and streams, giving the water its characteristic brown colour. Having grown up in the Cape, I will always associate pristine mountain streams with brown water.

Then Mickey and I headed down the mountain, on the jeep track.

These miserable Knysna Yellowwood trees were planted decades ago - presumably by foresters. Podocarpus falcatus is not local to our area and is locally invasive in the lower forest, growing like hairs on a dog's back. They are displacing local forest species, including our local yellowwood, Podocarpus latifolius.

I find it extremely irritating and embarrassing that Table Mountain National Park does nothing about their removal, not to mention the thousands of other invasive aliens - and this is supposed to be a World Heritage Site!


I like pine forests because they are incredibly silent - the needles absorb any sound underfoot and they are almost devoid of wildlife, except for the odd bird of prey. All the forests on Table Mnt are being systematically felled - soon there will be none left.

I am a great biodiversity fan and support the removal of aliens (including pines) on high mountain slopes. But to remove every single tree and bit of shade on the urban edge, in areas which are highly transformed and have little conservation value anyway - in the name of CONSERVATION - is ridiculous.

There has been a huge public outcry in Cape Town about the wholesale removal of these forests in recreational areas - to absolutely no avail. The managers at Table Mnt NP reign supreme. Unfortunately this kind of hard-core fanaticism does not win support for Cape biodiversity - on the contrary, it alienates people.

So better enjoy the forests while they last!

A Biodiversity Issue: Goodbye mopaneveld?

Today I received an email advertising mopane roots. What next? The guy has 9 tons of mopane roots from Nambia and proudly attached a dozen pictures of how they are used - as decor objects.

Argh. Where does all this wood come from? What does the landscape look like once the roots have been dug up, loaded and driven away?

In his website, he states "we focus on braai wood, firewood, ... as well as mopane root sales. Our wood and products are ... sourced straight out of Namibia and South Africa. We are driven with big hearts and a will to please."

It is a pity is big heart does not extend to the environment. He is just one among many of unscrupulous vendors selling illegally gathered hardwood from Namibia and the northern Cape.

The problem is this practise is unsustainable: dead wood is food for termites and a host of other animals, fungi and microorganisms, which return nutrients to the soil - which in turn enables the trees and grasses to grow.It is a natural recycling system which has been going on for millenia. The mass export of hardwood (or any biomass for that matter) will have a severe long-term impact on these arid ecosystems.

Mopane veld

Camel thorn trees, western Namibia

If you want to do your bit to help save these landscapes, don't buy mopane or camel thorn. Be suspicious of anything sold as Namibian hardwood and ask where it comes from.

If you absolutely must have hardwood for your braai (*), ask for Sickle Bush (Dicrostachys cinerea) - a local but invasive plant which is being harvested to control bush encroachment in arid areas. Sickle Bush has become a serious problem in parts of Namibia - forming dense impenetrable thickets - and there are programmes to poison and harvest it, or to convert it into charcoal. The wood has a dark centre and pale sapwood, and is also heavy, making great coals. Bon appetit!

(*) braai - barbeque