Our Activities
Out and about at Tokai Park
The broad definition of conservation that I propose is: 'actions that are intended to establish, improve or maintain good relations with nature'.
Friends of Tokai Park regularly hosts four types of event: alien hacking events which take place most weeks, guest speakers on interesting and relevant topics, guided walks and our annual general meetings. For more information, please keep an eye on our Events page or diarise a date that catches your eye when visiting our Facebook page.
Projects
Friends of Tokai Park (FoTP) frequently sources and applies for grant funding to run restoration and conservation projects. The following organisations have funded FOTP in the recent past:
- The IUCN and European Commission
- The Cape Town Environmental Education Trust (CTEET), now called Nature Connect, and the Table Mountain Fund
- The British Ecological Society
- The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA)
- Izele
Through this funding, we have run several extremely rewarding projects at Tokai Park. These include outreach activities, environmental education, and restoration. Some of our recent projects include:
- The Tokai Biodiversity Gateway Project (CTEET & BES 2019)
- Adopt-a-Plot
- The Fynbos Festival
- Nature Week
- Active Restoration of the Fragmented Habitat of the Endangered Western Leopard Toad (IUCN SOS 2022)
- Alien tree clearing
- Active restoration planting
- Capacity building
- Conservation awareness
- Living map of invasive alien trees at Tokai Park (Izele 2020)
- Tokai Park’s “eye in the sky” (WESSA 2021)
Friends of Tokai Park supports and participates wholeheartedly in many unfunded restoration and conservation projects, perhaps most notably, iNaturalist‘s annual City Nature Challenge and the Great Southern Bioblitz.
Hacks
The need for invasive-alien clearing is such that we hold four regular hacking events (hacks), catering for all physiques and fitness levels:
- Lower Tokai Alien Pulls
- Alien Hacks on the slopes of Constantiaberg
- Arboretum Hacks
- Youth Arboretum Hacks
Hacks afford our members and the greater community opportunity to show their commitment to conservation, get up close and personal with our invasive aliens and beloved Fynbos and enjoy a few thoroughly invigorating, educative and sociable hours out in Tokai Park.
What does hacking involve?
Depending on your fitness and interests, alien hacking ranges from the hand pulling of seedlings through lopping or popping bigger specimens to hand or chain-sawing large trees (the latter with required training). Terrain can vary from flat (a gentle alien hack at Lower Tokai) through to the slopes of Constantiaberg. Alien clearing is extremely satisfying physical work. It’s also a great opportunity to meet other members of the community and to learn more about the surrounding vegetation from the experts leading these events. In short, it’s a win-win for you and conservation.
Depending on the event, we meet at one of the Tokai Park parking areas (gates) for hacks. Please see our map at the foot of this page for their locations.
Why do we need to get rid of invasive alien trees?
Alien invasive trees threaten our economy, our biodiversity and water security. Compared to Fynbos, they use more water, increase fire risk, do not necessarily improve carbon sequestration and devastate biodiversity.
Hacking groups in and around Cape Town
Many of our fellow WESSA Friends organisations (as well as other formal or informal groups) organise regular hacking events and, like us, welcome volunteers. Should one be closer to you, please consider joining it.
Talks
Friends of Tokai Park hosts at least one talk each year and we invite guest speakers to our AGM, making for exciting and informative events.
Recent speakers focusing on our wildlife have included Jenny Cullinan of Ujubee, Dr Tony Rebelo of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), Professor Justin O’Riain of the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa, Dr Laurel Serieys of the Urban Caracal Project, Vard Aman of Cape Snake Conservation and the City of Cape Town’s Biodiversity Management Branch, and Dr Anandi Bierman, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Conservation Ecology and Entomology Department at Stellenbosch University and an authority on the landscape genomics of the polyphagus shot hole borer.
Notification of a talk is listed on this site’s Events page, sent out to members and subscribers, or features on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.
Dr Anandi Bierman: Genetics of the polyphagus shot hole borer and inferences on potential for future introductions in RSA – A coleopteran conundrum Friends of Tokai Park AGM – 31 March 2022 .
Jenny Cullinan: Restoring wild wisdom – Reclaiming the narrative of wild bees Friends of Tokai Park AGM – 25 March 2021
Dr Tony Rebelo: Sand Fynbos Restoration at Tokai: What have we learned? Friends of Tokai Park AGM – 7 September 2020
Note: As a WESSA Friends organisation and a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO), we commit ourselves to the highest levels of transparency. All our affairs are therefore open to your scrutiny and the Minutes of our Annual General Meetings are available on request from our Secretary.
Walks
Guided spring botanical and other walks, e.g. mushrooms, reptiles, night walks, are our favoured recreational and educational activity for interacting with the community at Tokai Park.
Be they guided, educational (we love introducing schools to the wonders of our Fynbos), corporate or special-purpose walks, we are most happy to serve our community. Tokai Park’s popular Restoration Trail, main restoration and conservation area, and the Arboretum can be included in, or selected for, a walk.
Our Spring Walks, hosted by Dr Tony Rebelo and Prof Patricia Rebelo, have seen Tokai Park put on stunning floristic displays. We expect this year to be no different.
Should you wish to arrange, guide or sponsor a hosted walk through Tokai Park, please contact our Secretary to plan your walk with us.
Special Events and Meetings
A community-based organisation enjoys special privileges and responsibilities. Those from which we derive the most pleasure (and reward) are those bringing us into contact with our broader community – most especially our youth. If you would like to arrange a community-service event, a project for your school or biology club, or a guided walk through Tokai Park, please contact our Secretary for further information.
We also host quarterly Friends of Tokai Park Committee Meetings and an Annual General Meeting (AGM). Our AGMs feature fascinating guest speakers and are open to the public.
As with all our other activities, we notify Friends of Tokai Park members and the broader community well in advance by posting to our Events page and to our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.
Meeting places
We meet at one of four parking lots for our events: the Lions Gate, Canal Gate, Dennedal Gate or Tokai Picnic Gate – all of which are marked on the map below.
