GOING GOING.....
GONE
LATEST Jan 2008
The Mayor of Cape Announced a series of round table meetings. Lots
of people were there. The feelings were not good .....But at
least there was talking!
Unfortunately the meetings did not conclude.
Brett
Myrdhal of SANParks then announced that there was this incredible
BREAKTHROUGH that occurred and that everyone was delighted and
it was a WIN WIN scenario...
This is absolute utter rubbish!
There was NO HAPPY PEOPLE.
NO INCREDIBLE WIN WIN BREAKTHROUGH!
Sanparks sunny days journalism depicted this "win win breakthrough"
in the newspaper all merry go happy ...in truth there are no forests
in the plan but only a kind of tree lined walkway..
IN FACT IT IS YET TO BE PLANTED!
If his interpretation of prevailing sentiment was
"delight" I would hate to see his idea of sizzling anger and conflict!
In reality - it is 100% WIN - LOOSE!
The sanparks proposals is NOT A FOREST....
THERE WILL BE NO MORE TREES
WAKE UP CAPE TOWN!
Letters to the editor
CAPE TIMES...
THE SHADY TRUTH OF
CECILIA
AND TOKAI'S RECREATIONAL AREAS.
Compromise or just sneaky & deceptive tokenism?
The argument in a NUTSHEL
On the one extreme are
groups who want all the non-indigenous plants removed from Table
Mountain national park. Not just plants but everything (Deer, Thars,
alien trees, Dogs e.t.c ). They would like to see TMNP (Table
Mountain National Park) returned back to its original state being
primarily Fynbos. This is a perfectly valid argument if its stand
alone. In context of the situation that we find ourselvces its not
valid at all! The organisation that has taken control of TMNP has,
as its priomary mandate, a wilderness Biodiversity core. Which is great
for more rural places! Stay in your car in the Kruger
national park, close the windows, dont get out! And definitely dont
have a pine forest in the park!
The complications start
coming up with Table mountian park, an urban park
that people have used completely freely walking with our dogs anywhere and
enjoying spectacular old plantation forests for recreation (Tokai,
Cecilia, constantia nek, Deer park e.t.c . In fact there are very
few places in the TMNP park with trees. The indigenous forests sit
in ravines and dont a provide a forest escape ambiance accessible
for all as the plantation forests do.
The argument gets more
hostile & fierce when others drive the urgency of the matter saying that many
species are on the brink of extinction and we better act ASAP ..get
rid of all the forest....NOW NOW NOW! When you read some fo the
articles posted here,- you will get the feeling of how antagonistic
this really is. Explore coolforests.
There is much anger and
driving different
motives and of course huge DISTRUST and doubht as to the validity
of this argument. For a start SANPARKS, as custodians never informed
the public of all these new plans unfolding on how life with TMNP is
to be!
The other argument is that
where much of the forests are removed what we are seeing coming up
is not FYnbos and threatened species BUT A GREAT BIG HEAVING MASS OF
SPREADING BLACK WATTLE and PORT JACKSON!
.....
which is very disturbing even for the ultra fundamentalists. What if
we unleash a new platform or kind of "launching ground" for the
really hard core & difficult
invadors! (SEE
PICTURES) and removing the pine and gum is just allowing
sunlight to hit the ground and start up the the way for black wattle
and other invadors,- even to an extremist anti-alien fanatic,- this
is serious bad news ,- jumping from the FRYING PAN INTO THE
FIRE!
What of Fynbos
will recover and what will just become a grim mass of impenetrable
black wattle.(SEE
PICTURES)
But its not
just this,- its other groups coming in TO CLEAR OF
ALIENS.......Poplars and Oaks are being ringbarked from waterlines
when the drainage just gos out to sea and sometimes where the areas
are vital shade for farmers and outdoor dwellkings e.t.s Not
all aliens are invadors.
THE ALIEN
INVADOR PROBLEM IS HUGE AND VERY DANGEROUS
AND WE
ARE NOT DISCOUNTING IT.
WE ARE CALLING
FOR SOME KIND OF BALANCE TO ACCOMODATE A VERY URBAN CONDITION
The truth is
that Cape Town city should not have been built right on the flanks
of Table mountain, but it was!
We only
want a very small amount fo forests to be retained.
LESS THAN 2 %
We are all lovers of nature
and are all nature conservationionists ourselves as much as we are
all outdoor lovers.
The other sad thing is that
this controversy has divided a force of people who should be
fighting together for nature conservation and the protection of
outdoor recreational park land.
Some day we will find as we
are already that brain dead, architecturally void so called golf
course developments and high density concrete matchbox homes and
parking lots have swallowed up our urban fringe. The garden route is
becoming the GOLF COURSE / INFORMAL SETTLEMENT COAST and there is an
insatiable drive for more and moe town house developments in very
innapropriate places,- right up against the parks. And worse the
days are coming when we find that a basic holiday door into the
wilderness is owned more by private companies and concessionaiers
who, like the fairy tail TROLL UNDER THE BRIDGE will lash you at
costs that are now becoming visiable sometimes at R4000.0 per
person poer night and throw in a picture of a girls pretty back
lying on a massage table with a few Zen-like pebbles with the
promise of spiritual rejuvination and they can double that price!
The forests of
cape town are a stepping stone into absolute quiet and peace,- there
should be no billing anywhere in table mountain in an URBAN PARK.
People need to be awakened
to the gift that is the outdoors of Cape Town that we have always
had and enjoyed. The new mnanagers of the Park SANPARKS should also
realise that this is very very different from the Kruger National
Park.
The trends
today are also not generally favourable for people FIGHTING TO
PROTECT OUR OUTDOOR HERITAGE.
Many people who literally
live in their computers and playstations and playing and now the new
big thing is "second Life" and have no interest whatsoever in
outdoors and nature but rather the next model of IPOD or LCD TV or
ultra fancy 4x4 that at the most will pavement hop!
THE CAPE TOWN FORESTS
Its actually part of Cape
Town culture and living, our walks in the beautiful expanse of
plantation forests gracing the flanks of table mountain,- called Tokai & Cecilia.
We have enjoyed our
forests walks in Tokai, Cecilia, Deer Park and the legendary Constantia nek
all our lives and now with the so called "FORESTRY EXIT STRATEGY"...Its
going very fast.
Suppose we have taken it for granted. beautiful winter
misty walks, collecting mushrooms or mountain biking in the expanse of
cool shade ..even in a baking mid-day summer....
Newlands forests in Getaways TOP 10....WILL ALL BE GONE!
Without your help, this massive part of beautiful cape town out
doors lifestyle with be robbed from our lives,- its a broad daylight
mugging concealed in piles of documents and Sanparks sunshine journalism
where it was said in the newspapers that all "DELIGHTED" with the
new sanparks big WIN WIN BREAKTHROUGH proposals...
When the plantations were started many
many years ago, the old foresters probably didnt have a clue as to what
the city would look like today. Just 20 years ago, cape town
was smaller, less cemented, a different world then. Today
Urban densification has accellerated faster than anyone could
have imagined. Now there are
very few shady tree areas left in the cape and notice while even
driving in the urban road, that almost all of the big trees
here are "ALIEN" ....foreigner!
NOT ALL FOREIGNER
SPECIES ARE INVADORS.
This is an urban fringe
are....Not a wilderness reserve like the kruger park( where
antialien fundamentalsim is cool and OK!)
The wine at your table
are "Aliens" and so is the wood in your roof & the potato on
your plate.
Almost ALL our forest
walks here, are in old plantation forests.
The indigenous forests
are mostly snugged up in ravines, not as easily walkable, run-able,
cycle-able as the
plantation forests. And of course there are the beautiful
indigenous forests in ORANGE KLOOF,- but thats now a SANPARKS private
"wilderness" trail...reserved for a handful of people
doing the Hoerikwaggo trail and acessable to the locals only after you have
"OBTAINED YOUR
PERMIT"....
and no dog walking, no mountain biking e.t.c (make peace with it...suspect this is our future!!)
One would imagine that
in a city like cape town, - getting denser by the day with both
formal and so called "informal" developments popping up like mushrooms
there would be plans to grab up as ch recreational forests for
parkland as possible ...even
if its plantations!
To have big tree walks
in the middle of a city that so badly needs them...
Its not just the heat,
its the south easter, its the winter cold.. a forest is an asset.
black sparrow hawk
Giant old
trees are becoming more and more rare.
you cannot build them.
You
inherit them.
What might have started
as a healthy and vigorous campaign against invador alien species and
what could have been a scalpel attack on the spreading black wattle
and port jackson ilk...seems to have spilled over into a the new
kind of xenophobic
white wash .
Little shade patches of
trees on the moountain have been wiped out and now forestry on the
mountian is closing down this is the "forestry exit strategy"
How government works is
anyones guess but could the BIG-WIGS at the top not see what is
happening,- That living forests for an entire city's "central park"
is 1000 times more precious than DEAD WOOD filling the pockets for a
few!
Even though its plantations, - its an asset to
the inhabitants of Cape Town,- a relatively
BABY YOUNG CITY!
mushrooms on log,- probably Galleria species
GOVERNMENT ....
Please let the left hand give to the right!
Keep some
forests for a desperately hot & baking city with a miserable SE wind
that can scream for days...and the only outdoors escape is the
forests!
BRING BACK FORESTRY
&
DECLARE SOME AREAS
A FORESTS PARK!
SAVE SOME OF THE OLD GROWTH FORESTS for the people!
IMPOSSIBLE? .....of
course.........Hmmmm
but the fanatics cant
bare the thought of this.
There are many opinions
and arguments. Explore the site. You will see them.
But consider this.........
What
we are asking for is
LESS THAN a TINY 2% of Table mountian park.
But it gets worse....
Consider this .....
SANPARKS were given
control of the Table mountain park. They are the custodians of not
only a priceless Biodiversity asset but of a peoples park
to....
THEY NEVER LET ANYONE
KNOW THAT FORESTRY HAD BEEN SHUT DOWN.
Not only is it against
the law (NEMA). But also not to let the public know about something
so fundamental to life in cape town was UTTERLY DISHONERABLE.
An open public
participation process was all that was needed in the beginning
when
sanparks took control of table mountain a few years ago.
Who owns table mountian
?
Who pays the salaries ?
YOU DO!
This mess is here because
some-one (whom ?) in some SANPARKS/ DWAF management meetings made the decision to
not go public and open up with the facts of the FORESTRY EXIT
STRATEGY...
innocuous Information like
this was then then down loaded to the public!
POLICIES WERE
ABRUPTLY CHANGED BEHIND CLOSED DOORS...
(SEE THE KASRILS
LETTER).
And of course this
situation gets more complex...the wood...the moola and
of course the
anti alien fanatics.
While watching table mountain
burn after the millions spent on UKUVUKA, one might argue that
ukuvuka clearly failed.
Magnificent and shady rest points of pine were cut down by the
superbly branded group called "working for water"
while the port jacksons on table mountain and wattle still
spread like wild fire (excuse the pun).
As we all watched the flames
devour Cape Town many might have also have wondered
how a
chain is as strong as its weakest link and that came
in the
form of one British tourist who set the mountain alight.
Not his
fault, maybe he was not too
bright....just a tourist from a foreign land.
Whose fault was it
really ?
How many Rands of the Ukuvuka anti-alien campaign went into
the Arrivals Hall of the Cape Town Airport to inform tourists of the
situation in the Cape?
How much of the funding went to warn tourists
of the "FIRE WIND" , our
deadly south Easter. ...Its hardly a "cape doctor"! One open flame plus
a south
Easter and it’s out of control!
Were any flyers given to anyone when
they got their passports stamped in Arrivals ?
What a perfect place
for direct contact with visitors. Surely it's a
situation THAT'S that SERIOUS?
We should have red and yellow fire flags up...that
flap like mad ..naturally when the South Easter is giving us a
lashing!
And when the flags are flapping....Thats a danger sign for all!
Anyway that's just
a
glimpse into that side of the picture....
Re the public participation
processes
SANPARKS held them
literally in the 11th
hour!
To late and now there is
a big mess!
For what reason was the DWAF
promises ignored ?
(transfer of the tokai and cecilia forests to
sanparks.)
Constantia nek is now gone and the rest of our foreigner tree forests
and beautiful
shady walks
will follow...
Cool and shady escapes that the people of cape town
have enjoyed for pover a century will be removed.
Its not
just the forests but harmless non invasives have also got the AXE or ringbarked...
Its one alien
One chainsaw
A new ethnic cleansing fanatacism is vandalising Cape
Town of its old giant trees!
The forests are worth x1000 more than the wood.
the classic Constantia Nek
forest walk before and after  
Time for quiet walk....one of those magic overcast days in
Cape Town....when the mists come in....and a forests Stream. Moss covered
rocks and your best buddy!
Alien trees on camps bay drive
Moss covered rock in ravine on Constantia nek (now gone)
Chilling out amongst the trees. A
classic Boletus edible mushroom amidst the infidel pine!
Alien trees (most of our REAL BIG trees in the Cape
Peninsula are "ALIENS...lets call them GUESTS!!
Constantia nek today.
TODAY Nov 2007. ...The future of the cape forests and
plantation leftovers.... Many thought that come plantations would have been
kept for the city and its people....but not a drop forests ... basically its
little walk ways here that are being considered. Decision makers, in true,
even comical Monty python fashion, Authorities have decided that forestry
should "cease to be"
Of course the
fanatics ...want it all to be Fynbos and no more aliens in the mountain yet
almost all trees in parks, roadsides, neighborhoods are foreigners!
The ratio 98% RESERVED FOR FYNBOS AGAINST 2%. FORESTS
..Think about it.
The amount of "OLD GROWTH" real forest is very little. A little effort to preserve some forests could have gone a long way for the public of cape town who now are deeply divided to have made Sanparks a more welcome guest,- a new host and custodian of our treasure where we walk, mountain bike, picnic and live a huge chunk of our lives,- Table Mountain! It takes a certain amount of Zealotry & fanatic "brain lock" to so deeply impose ones values on another that you actually cause a war! What's happened here in Cape Town. Its simple,- Not every body wants every thing to be Fynbos! Some want the mountain returned to what it was in its "glorious past" We are all different...Some like trees and forests some like bushy shrub and we have to live together!
 - In Principle this site is about a new kind of Fanaticism, not just against our foreign species forests, but it seems against all alien/ foreign species...
Its not a new thing...It appears there have always been fanatic zealots ....see extracts from the
book TABLE MOUNTAIN
OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE published 1951
- Please be aware that this is an issue, primarily of
the TMNP and its park aspect for the locals around the mountain. Its
having the tranquil environment of large tree forests in the centre of a city.
In reality a very little space occupied in the mountain adjacent urban
areas.
-
The matter is NOT IGNORANCE of biodiversity issues and Fynbos. We all know and acknowledge this. THE MATTER is being FALSELY TWISTED by fundamentalists who want to see Table Mountain returned to what it was hundreds of years ago and primarily fynbos
(The FYNBOS FUNDAMENTALISTS) with the claim that they will also regrow indigenous forests. (It will regrow,-
yes but only in the very restricted wet & moist ravines hardly
accessable to most people all ages as the flat ground areas now under pine
are.
-
We acknowledge, know and respect the fact of preservation of rare species and the protection of all species of Fynbos
and practical nature conservation.
- Cape Town is growing rapidly. Its hot and dry in summer and a strong wind, we call the south easter often makes the outdoors windswept and very harsh.
Trees provide an outdoor windproof recreation area even when the
South Easter is "howling" as it does here...and its truly
...well...horrible!
- Allmost all of our
remaining walkable forests & big shade trees are foreigner species
and forestry operations
- A massive amount of people form the city utilise the forests for walking and hiking and mixture of socialising activities. The Fynbos Fanatics and conservation fundamentalists would like to see ALL ALIENS REMOVED...
- When everything is Fynbos and all shade and
big tree'd beautiful walks are gone. It will take MANY DECADES of slow
growth to even get back ........to where we are now!
- Oak, Popular, Pine, - are all aliens that beautify the city and its forests in the park now unfortunately
fall under management by SANparks and the so called WORKING FOR
WATER ...group...(lots of questions around this organisation...and
it seems to have gone way way over the top.
- SANparks has already
removed a massive amount of OAK and PINE that was NON-INVASIVE and immensely precious to the outdoor lovers of Cape Town CIty.
- AN OAK TREE IS NOT AN ALIEN INVADOR and Niether
are many other trees getting the axe like stone pine.
-
When the fanatics have turned everything to Fynbos and killed all the Thars, - all the deer and every last Oak and Poplar and Pine WHATS NEXT ?
The grape vinyards ? You ? (Yes we are also alien invadors)
-
Believe the impossible,- Imagine Pretoria without its Jakarandas ?
They were close enough...The Jakarandas are the are the soul of pretoria, the trees that make it live-abale under the lazing heat of he high veldt were under attack by the preston brigade. It took high level intervention by Minister kasrils to save them.....Pretoria had to fight for its soul.
-
Read this,- The city council is waking up to the fact that HUMAN HABITAT is as important as Fynbos. The city can
still inherit a TINY amount of forest for a shade escape from the concete. Its not to late! The Mayor is awakened to the issue as a CITY CONCERN and that NATURE CONSERVATION IS PART AND PARCEL OF HUMAN HABITAT. PEOPLE MATTER TO.
-
One of the worst things is that Nature conservation fundamentalists are turning the very people who love the outdoors the most against them! We all love the outdoors and you dont have to belly crawl through the Fynbos admiring a Butterfly to legitimise yourself as a nature lover,- you could also be a mountain biker or jogger who loves a workout in the hade under the pine!
-
Many people start off their love of nature...not by butterfly collecting a botanical interest but by skateboarding under trees in a city park as a kid. THE FORESTS INVITE ALL OUT IN TO NATURE. The Average Person DOES NOT PICNIC IN THE FYNBOS! As Beautiful as it is ...We DONT WANT EVERYTHING..100% to be FYNBOS...
-
By the way SANPARKS SLOGAN ....A PARK....FOR ....ALL....FOREVER....
-
Read this,- Ask yourself if this is not fanatic and fundamentalist, black and white. On-Off Sterio-typed. IS this modern 21st cntuary systems thinking for a modern park ?? This os fomr one of the editors of one of the most important newspapers of cape town after the Mayor said she would act.
-
Read this the latest ....By an Editor of the Cape Times ....CLICK THROUGH
Are these forests precious to you?
FOREST LOVERS:- PLEASE PRINT AND FILL IN THE
PETITION ASAP
POST BACK TO US:-
SAVE OUR FORESTS, PO BOX 79, CAMPS BAY, CAPE TOWN, 8040
You should also write to The mayor and DWAF and
SANPARKS and please write to the local newspapers .
Did you know that they were removing the forests ?
Did you know that there was a so called public
participation process,- which many people missed and never had their
say.
who-ever you write to please also cc us a copy
info@coolforests.co.za
The city is loosing a very precious urban recreational environment,-
rapidly!
There is already very very little old growth left
and decades can go down in seconds with any chainsaw!
A model of
BALANCE click below...
21st centaury MODERN THINKING...In the UK,.
Conservation, farming, heritage all meet with modern user friendly nature conservation.
TREES IN THE UK AND THE REST OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD....(from press in
London) click this cutting...
 AND IN SOUTH AFRICA....The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) decided to eradicate all "alien" trees and it appears what may have started off, legitimately and importantly as a war on invadors has somehow bevome a war on just about everything non-indigenous,- invador or not! All alien trees (jacarandas miss the blade)! The trees of Tokai and Cecilia forests will NOT be replanted. The Blue gums along Swaanswyk Rd. and Constantia Nek will be cut. In about 10 years there will be no forests and almost no trees anymore. Please try to imagine if executed what the Peninsula will look like ! Instead, if we are going to believe the academic ideologues of Table Mountain National Park (henceforth referred to as TMNP), Fynbos shall grow there ! One rare kind in particular, of which 99.999 % of the citizens have never heard of. For this particular Fynbos 500,000 trees have to go forever, at least that is what the conservationists are hoping for if one believes they are that naive. We believe the real issue is money, not conservation. The Park's top management in our opinion just aims at more money and ever higher salaries. It is questionable whether they would have ever mentioned Biodiversity if World bank/GEF had not thrown millions of USD for that matter at them. Latest research regarding Impact of Climate Change on Fynbos however suggests that Fynbos will retreat " into smaller and smaller areas" in the (cooler) mountain tops. These two forests, Tokai and Cecilia, occupy a mere 2% (previously 1000ha) against approximately 98% Fynbos (43,000ha) .... but provide strong recreational value to the people of Cape Town. MTO the harvesting forest company would like to replant, but is not allowed to do so. While international scientists give humankind another 50 years to minimize Green House Gas emissions or face extinction, Bret Myrdal, the manager of TMNP utters something of a 100 year plan for the Park ! ( or was it 250 years Mr. Myrdal ?), Dr. Tony Rebelo worries about Cape Flat Sand plants and Dr. Guy Preston ("We have to box clever and rather ensure support for the fight against far worse species.") is fighting his heroic war for water (or is it on water?) by cutting down every alien tree he can get his hands on. In matters of water guzzling, "invasive" pine trees, "fire adapted" Fynbos and varies other details of the forests and the environment we believe TMNP has in the past and still is persistently and deliberately misinforming the public ! The National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 applies in our opinion also
to the actions of TMNP : "Environmental management must place people
and their needs at the forefront of its concern and serve their physical,
psychological, developmental, cultural and social interests equitably".
The Fynbos ideologues like to call the Tokai and Cecilia forests plantations since this term suggests they were planted to be harvested. We don't argue that. We appreciate that the pine trees are being harvested. Fast growing pine trees are a perfect carbon sink and produce - unlike Fynbos and Afro-montane trees- huge amounts of oxygen ! We only want them to be replanted and we would recommend to cut them in a different way, (as recommended by the FAO) so that the plantations become Permanent Forests.
SANParks and so-called conservationist Toni Rebelo show absolutely no respect for the living creatures and organisms who live presently in the Park and forests because they are deemed "aliens". They have killed the Thars and now they are going to kill the deer and they use propaganda which reminds us of South Africa's past. The Fynbos however, most likely, as shown here, will not grow again because the seeds were dormant in the soil for over 100 years . After the Fynbos in Tokai forest experiment has failed we must expect townhouses to "grow" there instead. The Park intends to release conservation land for housing : " Release of conservation land for low income housing is the pro-active way of dealing with land hunger and land invasion" Please see here the complete document! What "release" means is anybodies guess, but we expect someone will soon sign another contract and conservation of the rare Granite or Sand Plain Fynbos is not an issue anymore. If the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's (DWAF) "Exit Strategy" is executed as outlined there will be no forests in the Western Cape anymore. The famous Afro-montane trees, to which TMNP and SANParks like to refer to, will grow very slowly and only in certain ravines and Koloa's and can not replace them. The economic consequences for the province are described here. SANParks claimed first they planted already 20,000 new indigenous saplings. We were told by a SANParks employee that they estimate only ca. 9000 indigenous saplings survived so far. 9000 saplings would cover 10ha ! However, about 100 trees are cut per day, in total ca. 500,000 trees. One can easily figure out that SANParks can never replace these trees with indigenous trees, even if they wanted to. The Cecilia and Tokai forests were planted by the early settlers to protect the indigenous timber resources of the Cape. These early "conservationists" sadly missed their target entirely, there is almost no indigenous forest left. It is ironic that today's conservationists want to eradicate these "alien" forests for the conservation of Biodiversity. We must expect them to fail again. After the forests are gone the last green slopes of Table Mountain will suffer the same erosion as had most other areas of the mountain. Wind force will increase, rain water will evaporate faster and chances are the Southern suburbs and the Peninsula will be transformed into a dry, treeless steppe in the further proceeding Global Warming. 
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Urban Forest Protection
