Overberg media trip: Watercourse Restoration Project (part 3)

The handbook for farmers The Overberg Ruens Renosterveld has the following words in bold: "Your patch is not a single piece of veld, but it is part of a critical network of one of the most threatened habitats on earth!"

We mentioned that 95% of Renosterveld has been converted to cropland. The remaining Renosterveld is fragmented, small (only 10% is larger than 100 hectares), and linked by tiny waterways. Because managing these surviving patches of Renosterveld in isolation would probably lead to further loss, linking corridors between agricultural land and creating awareness of the importance of watercourses has become a very particular focus of the conservation work.

Cameras were set up to survey wildlife moving in the corridor between agricultural land. You’d be amazed at how much life happens in the area around a watercourse between two lands of crops, and how many species depend on the Renosterveld for their existence!

Large grey mongoose, small grey mongoose, water mongoose, yellow mongoose, large-spotted genet, small spotted genet, steenbuck, duiker, meerkat, Cape clawless otter, honeybadger, Aardvark and Aardworf were all among the wildlife captured on camera.

An Aardvark caught on camera. Looking like something out of a Winnie-the-Pooh story, this solitary and nocturnal animal feeds on termites. Photo used courtesy of Dr Curtis-Scott and the ORTC.

The Aardwolf feeds almost exclusively on termites. Its weak jaw and small teeth probably mean that there is no account of it ever being a threat to stock. Photo used courtesy of Dr Curtis-Scott and the ORTC.

Landowners can take watercourses  (perennial or annual streams, rivers and seepage areas) for granted and not notice erosion, salinisation and invasive alien weeds until late in the day. The ORTC provides farmers with advice and assistance with practical management.

 

Overberg media trip: the choice to go left instead of straight (part 2)

We arrived at the river where Lynch addressed us on the surprising find: Heuningnes redfin minnow living in watercourses that seemed unsuitable for indigenous fish. The fish are a critically endangered indigenous species.

He paints the probable scenario of how these fish ended up here; how in the early years of earth as we now know it, the redfin went left instead of straight. As millennia passed and waters subsided, these fish became part of inland rivers and streams. The extreme drought conditions of the past four years have been bad news for the fish with many pools and sections of rivers drying up.

Some people can read palms, others the stars, and come up with a world of information. Watercourses and the fish found in them are a similar "book" for the person with the know-how, and it is fascinating to listen to an analysis.

A blog by the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust (ORCT) on the redfin finding can be read here.

Of interest to us is that good agricultural practice works in the fish's favour. Lynch identifies Conservation Agriculture (CA) as the first. CA allows for greater infiltration of water into the ground and consequently, less pesticides run off into rivers. Secondly, lands which allow a buffer between crops and rivers allow for sediment carrying pesticides and other chemicals to be captured, again preventing them from spoiling water quality in the rivers.

We returned to the vehicles to continue our tour of the ORTC's work in the area.

Overberg media trip: setting the stage (part1)

I had done a quick reconnaissance of Napier, the Overberg Renosterveld and fynbos before setting out on the field trip – but no amount of desk research prepares you for the open spaces of the Overberg! 

Nomonde Mxhalisa, marketing manager of the WWF Nedbank Green Trust, had  invited a delegation to view the work that the Trust is supporting. (What an excellent way to market your work and projects: fly journalists and writers out to see for themselves; their articles and documentaries make a worthy supplement/substitute for any adverts you may take out in the media!)

 

After a sumptuous breakfast at Suntouched Inn, we set off to Hansies River to meet the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust team.

The reader will understand that Renosterveld is the least appreciated component in the Cape Floristic Region. Its (mostly) grasses and shrubs come off third best against its cousins: Fynbos and Strandveld's Proteas, Ericas and Restios.

Renosterveld occurs on rich soil: no wonder it gave way to crops! And the Western Cape, which now produces most of South Africa's wheat, is perhaps first in line when it comes to claiming the "breadbasket of South Africa" title. Today however, less than 5% of the original Renosterveld remains, and its vegetation types are classified as Critically Endangered.

Renosterveld "is considered the richest bulb habitat on Earth", writes the director of the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust (ORCT), Dr Odette Curtis-Scott. It boasts a wide variety of mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, spiders and scorpions, amphibians and plants (more about these later). A second person in the ORCT is Keir Lynch. 

Nomonde Mxhalisa (Green Trust), Onkemetse Nteta (WWF SA), Dr Odette Curtis-Scott and Keir Lynch (ORCT) discuss matters related to the first morning. On the left, Linky Bierman (SABC) looks on.

A fourth-generation South African of Irish descent, with blonde dreadlocks, earrings, and an informed and authoritative presence, Keir is the Project Manager or the Watercourse Restoration Project run by the ORCT. After a brief discussion, we follow him to a tributary of the Kars river where we will hear about Heuningnes Redfin.