Intaka outing for the volunteer students from Germany and Norway.
photograph by Erica Essig.
This month we started off the month with a trip to Intaka island as a farewell present to the volunteers! The 5 German and Norwegian volunteers that assisted with alien clearing, maintenance and building in the past few months have sadly fledged the nest and are back to their home countries. I treated them to a trip to intaka and a farewell meal.. they really deserved it!
This month has been super busy! We currently were given some new EPWP staff and Strandfontein now has 16 extra helpers. They have been split up into teams and we now have:
The Conservation team – Helping out with the water hyacinth monitoring and removal
The Alien team – Removing the Canna and Ipomea species at the gate house
Sydnes Team – Removing the rooikranz, manatocka and tree mallow at the eastern boundary
Litter Team – Cleaning the litter from the coast and internal sections.
Having the extra hands has really helped on site, as we are finally getting round to the tackling the terrestrial invasive species that are endangering the indigenous flora and fauna species.
We got lots of outside help from the Cape Flats Waste Water Treatment Works and Stormwater and Catchment department, fixing our roads and helping to remove the hyacinth with an excavator.
We have also employed 3 Strandfontein Birding Area Rangers – These individuals are currently going through a WESSA training programme and are being taught about Ecology and Conservation principles. They are in charge of the regular bird counts and seem to be fitting in very well.
That’s all for this month.
See more of what we did this month.
