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Newsletter |
April 2003 |
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From the Hide |
There is not much bird
life around the hide at present, due to non-existent water
levels! A bird count done on 11th April concentrated on
other wetter areas of Rietvlei. The Dolphin Beach Ponds
still have some Spurwinged Geese, a few Whitebacked Duck,
Purple Herons and 8 Purple Gallinules. We were lucky enough
to see an adult Purple Gallinule with a small fluffy chick.
Numbers of these Gallinules are always high at these ponds
and they are always happy to show themselves. The Diep River
is looking good these days now that most of the Water
Hyacinth is gone and we had good totals here. 23 Blackwinged
Stilt, Redbilled Teal and a nice Pied Kingfisher. The
Egyptian Geese were prolific and around 1,400 were counted
in total. 30 Pelicans and around 100 Spurwinged Geese, as
well as 16 Black Oystercatchers were a nice surprise. 6
African Snipe were seen in the Lagoon area.
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Annual General Meeting |
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Our AGM will be held on
Thursday 8th May and we hope as many members as possible
will be able to attend. There will be the usual Chairman's
Report, Treasurers Report and any new business. Our new
students will present updates on their projects for the
year, and Rob Robertson will update us on latest Potsdam
Wastewater Treatment Works developments. If we have any news
about our Education Centre, we will present it at the AGM. |
Date: Thursday 8th May 2003
Time: 7.30p.m. for 8p.m.
Venue: Milnerton Aquatic Clubhouse, off Pentz Drive, Table
View
Details: Margaret at 557-4990
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Rainfall figures for
Rietvlei 2000 - 2003 |
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2000-2001
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2001-2002
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2002-2003
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| October |
5.3
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31.2
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33.7
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| November |
8.8
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22.5
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13.2
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| December |
2.5+
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10.5
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20.1
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| January |
16
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57.9
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3.5
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| February
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2
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10
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6
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| March |
0
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10.1
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32.2
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Renewal time |
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Included with your
newsletter, you will find a Renewal Notice. Please complete
this and return it to our P.O. Box. We sincerely hope all
our members will opt to renew their membership, Rietvlei
needs your care and protection. |
If you joined the Friends of Rietvlei since December 2002,
please ignore the Renewal Notice - you do not need to renew.
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REPORT BACK ON RIETVLEI
CENTRAL PAN DUST PROBLEMS |
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Members of a few years
standing will remember that during the late summer of 2001
the central pan of Rietvlei became very dry as a consequence
of the very hot, windy and low-rainfall conditions of the
months of January to March. The Council commissioned a study
to be done by the CSIR to provide methods to deal with the
excessive dust that blew off the pan during exceptionally
windy periods. The methods proposed had to be acceptable
from an environmental, social and engineering/economic point
of view. |
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The recommended option to deal with a dry and dusty pan that
was creating a significant dust nuisance to the downwind
residents was to pump water from the North Vlei across the
pan to wet it by soaking (i.e. run the water onto the pan
from the end of the pipe). |
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Late summer of 2002 did not produce a dry and dusty pan so
no action was needed on the pan. However towards the end of
February this year the pan dried out and the strong
southeasterly wind started to create dust problems. The
Council put the measures recommended in the CSIR report into
action for the first time. Koos Retief, Rietvlei's
Environmental Site Officer, oversaw the measures. Council's
Roads and Stormwater section provided staff, the pump and
pipes, and the three Rietvlei Nature Conservation students
provided a lot of the muscle-power for moving the heavy,
muddy pipes. |
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These actions were successful and pumping has now ceased for
this season. |
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| This newsletter comes to you with the kind
assistance of Caltex. |
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