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NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING |
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Members are notified that the Annual
General Meeting of Friends of
Rietvlei for the year ending 31
March 2011 will be held on Thursday
5 May 2011 at19h30 for 20h00 in the
Rietvlei Education Centre, off Grey
Ave, Table View. |
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After our official business our
speaker for the evening will be
Shelley Edwards from SANBI. |
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Earth’s climate is changing and the
ability of Africa’s fauna to adapt
to new environments has been a hot
topic, particularly when it is
necessary to translocate populations
to new areas to prevent their
extinction. In the year 2000, 3
individuals of Knox’s Desert Lizard
were translocated from a population
in Phillipi to Zandvlei Nature
Reserve, in the Western Cape. In the
ten years following the
introduction, the Zandvlei
population has grown substantially
in numbers. The current study
investigates whether the low number
of founding population has adversely
affected the genetic diversity
within the Zandvlei population,
compared to that at the Phillipi
site, as well as at a “wild” site –
Rietvlei Nature Reserve. We also aim
to identify whether any changes in
the body shape of the lizards have
occurred due to the new environment
of Zandvlei Nature Reserve. Such
changes may affect the performance
(e.g. sprinting speed, bite
strength) of the lizards. This work
forms part of Shelley’s doctorate
work, and is a portion of the
greater Reptile Speciation Project
being conducted at SANBI,
Kirstenbosch. |
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Members are also reminded to renew
their membership for the 2011/12
year. You can renew your membership
at the AGM or via electronic banking
or the postal system. Renewal forms
are available on our website. |
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PLEASE CONTACT Pauline on 083 255
2537 if you require further
information. |
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EVENTS |
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FEEDBACK: Our walk to Intaka
Island had to be postponed as
there was a sports event in
Century City on that day.
Instead we visited the
Durbanville Nature Reserve on 6
March for a pleasant Sunday
afternoon walk through this
small, but very interesting
reserve. Only 6 ha in size, the
reserve was established in 1966
to protect the rare Aristea
lugens growing there; there are
about 130 plant species, three
endemic to Cape Town and at
least ten threatened with
extinction. |
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On Saturday 14 May WESSA will be
holding its quarterly Friends
Groups Meeting at Rietvlei
Education Centre. Members of
Friends groups meet to report
back and discuss matters of
mutual interest. The meeting is
from 10h30 to 12h30. After a
light lunch Friends of Rietvlei
will host a walk to the Bird
Hides for the participants. All
members are welcome to attend,
WESSA will send out the official
notice later and those
interested can then RSVP. |
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Please also diarise Sunday 5
June - World Environment Day –
for a beach walk in the Coastal
Section between Dolphin Beach
and Sunset Beach. We will meet
at Dolphin Beach Hotel parking
area at 14h30. Please bring a
black bag with you so that we
can do a clean-up of any litter. |
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OUR INDIGENOUS GARDEN |
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Committee Member Gail McDonald has been tasked to
revamp our somewhat neglected indigenous garden. The
indigenous garden is the small open plot on the
northern shore of Rietvlei at the bottom end of Grey
Avenue, on your right just before you turn left to
enter the gates of the reserve. Gail reports as
follows: |
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I don't know if any of the members have noticed that
some work has been done on the indigenous garden. We
have had some workers in to clear the perimeter and
have mulched the cleared area. We have planted some
plants indigenous to the area.The plants are
Metalasia muricata (blombos), Chondropetalum
tectorum (dekriet) and Nylandtia spinosa
(skilpadbessie). |
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I am in the process of compiling a list of plants
suitable for our area from which we can do future
planting. Anyone wishing to donate a plant or
provide slips from the list is welcome to do so and
it will be much appreciated. |
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If there are any members who are interested or
willing to volunteer some time to assist or help in
the garden with the upkeep please forward your
contact details to Gail on 0829378759. |
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Plants were obtained at a discount from: Alan Hayward,
Sandown Nursery, 104 Sandown Drive. Bloubergsands;
021 554 4355. Thank you Alan! |
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EXCITING NEWS – THE TABLE BAY NATURE RESERVE |
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The last month has seen a most exciting development.
In January the City announced their intention to
proclaim all their nature reserves under the
Protected Areas Act, 2003 (Act 57 of 2003). This
process involved the determination of boundaries and
the establishment of management plans for each of
the reserves. |
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A public participation process during February
resulted in some interesting proposals – and
probably the most exciting one, and Friends of
Rietvlei was partly responsible for this proposal,
was combining Rietvlei, Milnerton lagoon, Diep River
corridor, the Paarden Eiland wetlands, and Milnerton
Racecourse into one large nature reserve to be
called the Table Bay Nature Reserve. This would mean
one proclamation for all these conservation areas
with a single management structure – much more
efficient and cost-effective than having separate
management structures for each of these areas. There
will be an integrated management plan for the whole
reserve, but the various ‘management blocks’ will
each have their own detailed management plan. This
means that the current Diep Estuary Management Plan
and the Milnerton Racecourse Management Plan will
remain in force; management plans for the other
components of the Table Bay Nature Reserve are being
finalised. |
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This proposal has been widely supported by various
stakeholders; it must now be presented to Council
for approval together with the management plans and
proposed boundaries of all the City reserves. After
approval by Council, these will be submitted to Cape
Nature for proclamation in terms of the National
Environmental Management :Protected Areas Act. |
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FUNDING FOR DIEP ESTUARY MANAGEMENT PLAN |
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In our previous newsletter we reported that the
Table Mountain Fund has approved R100,000 as partial
funding for the hydrology and geohydrology study of
the Diep River Estuary and Rietvlei. The City also
budgeted an amount of R305,000 to complete this
project. At present we are still waiting for the
City to complete its administrative procedures to
enable the funding to be released so that the
appointment of consultants to carry out the study
can commence. |
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Expansion and Upgrading of Wastewater Treatment
Infrastructure in the Blaauwberg Area. |
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We are still waiting for a response to the appeal we
lodged last year against the authorisation from
Province that the Potsdam WWTW be expanded. |
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Gold Circle Development Authorisation. |
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Early in February the Department of Environmental
Affairs and Development Planning in the Province
gave environmental authorisation for the multi-use
development of the Gold Circle property adjacent to
the Milnerton Racecourse Nature Reserve. |
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The Friends of Rietvlei studied the record of
decision (ROD), and while not opposing the
authorisation as such, we were concerned that the
conditions of the approval did not cover certain
critical issues we had raised during the public
participation process. On the basis of this we have
lodged an appeal to the Minister. |
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Our concerns are that, while the environmental study
found that the flow of groundwater in the area is
from the property westwards into the Nature Reserve,
it was also established that the groundwater levels
are very shallow. The report thus advised that
basements and deep foundations not be allowed in the
development; however, the authorisation did not
include this as a condition. The City of Cape Town’s
Biodiversity experts also made specific
recommendations for the width and length of a
corridor along the side of the development
connecting the northern and southern portions of the
Nature Reserve; the authorisation just makes a
general statement that the size of this corridor
should be determined in consultation with the City –
but the wording is a bit loose and needs tightening
up. |
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NEW STAFF AT RIETVLEI |
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At the end of February we took leave of Rifqah
Johnson who had been the Environmental Education
intern at Rietvlei Education Centre for the past
year. Her contract had come to an end. We are glad
to advise that she has been appointed at SANCCOB so
she is not lost to the area. We thank her for her
enthusiastic and interesting educating at Rietvlei. |
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In her place we welcome Chanelle Naidoo as the new
Environmental Education Intern – we are sure that
Chanelle will carry on with the tradition of
providing good environmental education programmes
for local learners and other groups. |
CONTACT NUMBERS AT THE RESERVE:
Environmental Education Centre – 021 521 9900
Entrance Gate – 021 557 5900
Emergencies and standby number 071 268 9637 |
