Forest “fire risk on our doorstep” is huge

22 March 2022

SOUTH AFRICA – A conservation group has warned that those residing close to Newlands Forest are living on the edge of a cataclysmic fire risk – one that is being developed over time.

According to Willem Boshoff, co-founder of the Newlands Forest Conservation Group, the large number of dead indigenous trees left in the wake of industrial-scale bark stripping during lockdown has placed the local ecosystem under threefold pressure. As the damaged trees dry out and topple over – usually after storms – not only is the tree canopy depleted and the fuel load increased, it also leaves the area vulnerable to invasive species.

“Our concern is bigger than bark stripping – what we are focusing on now is the eradication and containment of invasive species. A lot of the invasive species are highly flammable, especially Pine and Eucalyptus trees, but also common invaders like Rooikrans and Port Jackson. They are reconfiguring the make-up of the forest and creating an enormous fire risk,” says Boshoff.

He adds that indigenous Afromontane forests (plant species common to the mountains) do not burn easily. As was seen during the devastating Knysna fires of 2017, under normal circumstances, indigenous forests act as firebreaks.

“In Newlands, we have a very fire-resistant Afromontane forest on our urban edge, but it is being damaged. So now we have a good thing being turned into a bad thing,” says Boshoff.

Francois Krige, owner of The Tree Liberation Front – a reforestation and ecological rehabilitation business focused on the area in and around Platbos forest – says forest covers only 0.05% of our land surface in the Western Cape.

“It’s precious little that must not burn,” he says.

He explains, that with our Mediterranean climate, it is fire that destroys the forest.

“They don’t burn easily, it would take a hot day in February or March, often just before the first rains of autumn, when a hot dry northerly wind blows.”

However, he says climate change has made indigenous forests more vulnerable to fire. He says this, combined with the effects of bark stripping, is a perfect cocktail for ecological destruction.

Krige describes bark stripping as the thin end of a wedge that destroys forest and all that lives in it.

“When people strip the bark from the trees in the forest, it kills those trees and tips a stable system into a spiraling process. The dead trees allow light to penetrate the forest floor, the alien seed germinates, and fire excluding forest is replaced by an area with flammable alien and very flammable dead trees,” he says.

Krige, who is also an arborist, says something that many people don’t know is that the forest floor of indigenous forests is densely packed with alien seeds.

“Birds love alien seed and they love to sit in indigenous trees and poop the seed out. Fortunately, that seed usually requires sunlight or fire to germinate, and that’s absent on the forest floor, but it’s there, waiting.

“After a fire has burnt through such a disturbed landscape, the alien seed bank gets the chance it’s been waiting for and germinates like hairs on a dog’s back, outcompeting the indigenous seedlings. The system has been disrupted and monoculture has replaced the forest,” says Krige.

He says what is left is a fire-adapted nightmare of a landscape on the doorstep of the suburbs.

“To counter this, bark stripping needs to stop and aliens need to be cleared. SANParks need to start caring for the forest that they are the custodians of.”

Boshoff says they are engaging with SANParks to set up arrangements to allow the public to get involved on a larger scale to assist with the eradication of invasives, especially new growth. “It is, however, an administratively intensive process. The delays are frustrating but there is a lot of good intention there. We are working it out,” he says.

He says in the future, The Newlands Forest Conservation Group hopes to establish a full-time team to hack out invasive species in Newlands Forest. In the meantime, the group does have a small group of volunteers who go out every Wednesday morning to clear invasive saplings. Other hacking groups active on Table Mountain, as well as Honorary Rangers are doing what they can.

“But the extent of the problem is so big. We are building little sandcastles and the tide is coming in.

“We need a coordinated approach, with a proper strategy for containment, eradication of established invasives and removal of the fuel load. And we need massive public involvement,” says Boshoff.

He urges communities to take an interest in their neighbouring forests. To either sponsor invasive clearing or protect against bark stripping.

“We have several thousands of people visiting our forests every weekend. If they just spend time and pull out three or four invasive saplings, they will already help make a difference,” says Boshoff.

22. March 2022/by GFMCadmin