The colour of green Jonkershoek Nature Reserve Image Santie Gouws
10-million trees? A letter to the Minister
Alanna Rebelo debunks DFFE Minister Barbara Creecy's 10-Million Trees Programme
Original image source Constantiaberg Bulletin
Shady proposition elicits illuminating responses
Professors William Bond and Tony Rebelo repudiate DFFE's 10-million Tree Programme
The area surrounding Tokai Park used to be a commercial pine plantation, but after the exit of forestry from the Western Cape, the last pine trees are being harvested and the area is being restored to indigenous fynbos vegetation.
Science-based restoration crucial to Cape’s lowland fynbos
Cape Flats Sand Fynbos and Peninsula Granite Fynbos need science-based restoration
Protea repens reseeder
Tokai Park and the Myth of Sustainable Development
"For as long as our footprint remains 1.7 Earths, we have no sustainable future," writes Tony Rebelo, tackling "sustainable development".
Tracking Change at Tokai Park
FoTP intern Matthew Collins updates our remote-sensing tool tracking change in the presence of invasive alien vegetation (IAV) at Tokai Park.
Tokai Shroom Hunt Autumn 2021
The Tokai Arboretum Shroom Hunt – Autumn 2021
Gaby Meyer leads a well-attended shroom hunt through the Tokai Arboretum following decent autumn rains. Tony Rebelo fills us in.
A brief Ecosystem Services assessment of fynbos compared to plantations at Tokai Park, South Africa.
The TCMF Review: The silenced view
From a Letter to the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy, on the Tokai Cecilia Management Framework (TCMF).
April 2021's Devil's Peak wildfire caused catastrophic cultural heritage loss on spreading to the University of Cape Town Photo Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Why 2021’s Devil’s Peak fire was so devastating
Following 2021's Devil's Peak Fire, we ask what could and should have been done to avert catastrophic cultural heritage loss.
The mole snake (Pseudaspis cana) Photo: Vard Aman
Learning to Love the Mole Snake
Herpetologist Vard Aman explains how the mole snake (Pseudaspsis cana) provides free, safe, and ecologically friendly rodent control in our suburbs.
The 23 March 2021 fire at Prinskasteel Wetland Block 19A was a prescribed post-plantation clearing of slash and fuel for the restoration of the Fynbos. It had been postponed for several years by drought and, in 2020, by Covid-19. Photo Tony Rebelo
The Perfect Restoration Burn
SANParks' prescribed burn at Tokai Park's Prinskasteel Wetland Block A19, conducted in perfect conditions on 23 March 2021, proved an historical occasion.
Tokai Park’s Eye in the Sky
Nicholas Coertze and Alanna Rebelo explain how FoTP's Sentinel-2 Web app allows us to monitor invasive-alien tree growth at Tokai Park. Part 2 of 2.
Roads crisscross the damaged but recovering fynbos at Tokai Park, dividing the park up into management blocks. Some blocks have been recently cleared of invasive alien trees by Working for Water (the brown/red blocks) and others have recovering fynbos (green-brown blocks), while others remain infested with wattle and gums (bright green blocks), the sinister legacy of plantation-forestry that has exited the region. Photo Byron-Mahieu van der Linde
The Road to Recovery
Nicholas Coertze explains how advanced remote sensing technologies will enable us to monitor invasive alien trees at Tokai Park. Part 1 of 2.
Cape Town's biodiverse Fynbos Biome ranks third among South African biomes for its capacity to store carbon (per square metre). It must be protected Photo Shutterstock
Cape Town’s imperfect climate strategy
We review and comment on the City of Cape Town's 2020 draft climate-change strategy – which ignores our unique biodiversity.
The legend of the almost-extinct Tokai Cape Flats Silkypuff
A sprawling groundcover, the Cape Flats Silkypuff (Diastella proteoides) has charming puff-like clusters of small flowers formed by rosettes of pointed pink star-like, hairy bracts.
Erica verticilllata (whorl heath), a critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos species still extinct in the wild, at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. Photo: Wikimedia
Erica verticillata, from Extinction to Restoration
Legendary Fynbos plantsman and Kirstenbosch horticuturist Anthony Hitchcock writes of restoring Whorl Heath (Erica verticillata) to the wild.
