Paintball Hackers
The Autumn-Winter Report
This autumn-winter (interrupted by the Covid19 Lockdown) our focus has been on the latest restoration block, A7b – known as the Paintball Block.
Note how the area consists of spots subjected to hot or cold fires. The white areas (two rows wide) are where the slash was pulled by the tree-felling machine, and with lots of fuel burned very hot – burning the pine duff and exposing the soil. The dark areas (two rows wide) are where there was not enough slash for a hot fire, and so burned cool – leaving most of the duff. We will be monitoring the two “treatments” to see which species like the very hot fire and which the cool fire. Preliminary results indicate that most of the weedy species like the duff and that there are a few large, deep-seeded species that prefer the hot fires (including the Golden Wattle). The duff (formed by pine needles and a lack of fire under the pines) is not natural in Fynbos and is an interesting phenomenon. A concern is that when it burns it kills the bulbs, so our spring surveys will be very important to assess what has happened.
Apart from clearing aliens, we are also recording the species that are recovering. We have sown some Leucadendron laureolum and Protea repens, but everything else has come up from the seedbanks that survived 100 years under three pine plantations.
We have 106 plant species in the block (you need to register on iNaturalist.org or log in if you are already signed up, and play with the filters to see the various groups [no herps – frogs and reptiles – have been recorded in the block so far: they still need to come back]). Quite an impressive number of plant species until one finds out that 28 of these are aliens (shown below with the pink “IN” for invasive). Nonetheless, quite a few of our species are still far too small to identify, and it will still be another few years before we have a good idea of what has survived.
I won’t provide maps, but we have cleared between 2/3 and ¾ of the block so far in three FoTP outings. We need to take into account that, in the week before the lockdown, we had four school ecoclubs pulling and they did a magnificent job – especially in the very dense southeast corner – so perhaps another two sessions should see us finishing with Round 1 of the Paintball Block, and then onto the Stone Church Block (A8a) and the Owl Loop Block (A7a) which was burned in the same block fire. A8a is the first site at Lower Tokai to burn twice, so is one of the most interesting blocks for this reason.
Just a few estimates. The site aliens are largely Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha) and we estimate that we (with the schools) have cleared around 20 000-40 000 plants so far. There have been small numbers of Longleaf Wattle (A. longifolia ~150), Port Jackson (A. saligna ~100), Blackwattle (~1) and Stinkbean (~1). There are gums as well (~5), but we will leave them for the chainsaw gang. We are not worried about the annual aliens; the recovering Fynbos must solve those, although the fire has done a great job of reducing Turtle Grass (Briza maxima).
Far more importantly (who cares about the aliens?), we have cleared about 2/3 of the 5,6 ha, so we have cleared almost 4 ha to “Cape Flats Sand Fynbos” in the Paintball Block. At this stage, we are not sure about what community this is, but we suspect it will be Deep Sand Cape Pegreed Fynbos (elsewhere we have Groovy Sunreed Fynbos, Prongreed Fynbos and Wetland Fynbos – so four communities, but half the area of Lower Tokai has not been figured out yet – it is still too young).
A FEW LESSONS
- Someone came and cut a whole lot of Golden Wattles at the west end: this is bad news as it was cut too high (if you cut it must be just below ground level; why on earth cut when it pulls so well?) and over 60% appear to have coppiced. These were a pain to pull as they did not give a good grip and slowed down pulling considerably: fortunately, it was a superficial job and so not too difficult.
- A Working for Water (WfW) team visited the area in March and sprayed poison (with the blue dye) – killing everything but the Golden Wattles: fortunately, it was confined to a very small area near the road – the area we tackled on Youth Day (the dye was too fresh in March and we dared not allow the school groups into the area). The day before, the same group hacked out and poisoned the King Proteas in the Restoration Trail. A most unfortunate disaster.
When the aliens are done and we have completed our early spring surveys (which you will all be welcome to join!), we will compile the list of priority species to return to the site. These will be species historically recorded at Tokai-Bergvliet but which did not survive the pines (the last pine cycle was Monterey Pine, planted in 1994 and originally due to be harvested this 2020 spring, but moved forward because of the 2015 fire). We do already have some Leucospermum conocarpodendron that we hope to plant with the next big (>20mm rain) cold front.
So, as you can see, we are doing very well with progress. Thanks for all your help in making this possible.
Please feel welcome to walk around this area on the roads and paths (but please, no dogs, as the baboons are allowed to feed here and the two do not mix) to admire your Fynbos as it grows and matures over the next few years.
Keep well, and keep safe: and see you at our next hack.
Tony Rebelo
