He adds that one advantage of having
employed people from the local
community for the eastern shore
development is that they’ve become
protective over the infrastructure
they built, which should help limit the
amount of vandalism.
Another 30 people were taken on for the
reserve’s two-year Skills Development
Programme, which provides on-thejob
training in alien-clearing, chainsaw
operation, plant cultivation, fire-fighting
and first aid, amongst others. In this
case, the EPWP funding was from
the Department of Environmental
Affairs’ Natural Resource Management
Programme, under which the ‘Working
for’ programmes now fall.
One of the alien-clearing projects tackled
by these workers is the manual removal
of water hyacinth, which seems to have
achieved its eradication from Zeekoevlei
and some of the Strandfontein pans. A
few of the other pans are so completely
covered by the weed that herbicides may
need to be used – the biocontrol agents
released to date have not been effective.
The clearing work at Strandfontein
started in 2011 under the supervision
of the conservation manager funded by
the Cape Bird Club. Now that this post
has been absorbed into the reserve’s
management structure, the Cape Bird
Club is supporting conservation at the
site in other ways.
“We’re funding research by the
conservation manager, Erica Essig, on
how we can improve the habitat for
birds using the shore line, and also
employing a foreman to assist her,” says
Dr Dave Whitelaw, who set up the club’s
conservation committee in 1989 and
has chaired it ever since. He himself has
played an instrumental role in enhancing
the birdlife at the site by encouraging
the sewage works staff, some 15 years
ago, to manipulate water levels in the
pans.