Cape Argus
May 30th 2011
John Yeld
Environment & Science Writer
CITY CONSERVATION officials and botanists are livid at the illegal bulldozing of a property in the Strand that contained a tiny patch of a critically endangered indigenous vegetation type, Lourensford Alluvial Fynbos.
This fynbos type includes the critically endangered Watsonia humilis, a species known from just here and two other places in the province, and another critically endangered plant, Ixia versicolor, which has been found on only three sites.
DESTROYED: Botanists and city officials examine the Strand property where a tiny patch of critically endangered Lourensford Alluvia! Fynbos was illegally bulldozed last week. Experts say the site may be tiny but is of global significance.PICTURE: SEAMUS MACLENNAN
The destruction was reportedly caused by people being tested for their ability to drive bulldozers and mechanical diggers, and was done without the permission of the site’s owners, development company MSP, which is equally angry.
An urgent rescue operation is being launched. The big pile of soil that was bulldozed into a heap, which may contain several hundred of the watsonia bulbs, will probably be moved to the city’s nearby Harmony Flats nature reserve and spread out over an area that needs rehabilitation, in the hope that some of the plants will survive.
MSP managing director John Coetzee told city officials and botanists at the site on Friday that the company was “200 percent” behind their efforts to save and rehabilitate as much of the bulldozed vegetation as possible, and to bring the culprits to book. The police have been asked to investigate, and Coetzee said they would lay formal criminal charges.
“We’re not going to accept this. I think the urgent thing is to save what’s left, and we will start a ‘search and rescue’ (of bulbs and plants) immediately. We will make money available to get this done.”
A colleague told Coetzee that just before the meeting with the city officials and botanists, a grader driver had been on the site with his machine. When told that it was illegal for him to be there, the driver reportedly indicated he would go to another nearby vacant site.
Coetzee asked police who were at the meeting to immediately go to investigate.
“We have to stop these guys. They cannot just move from site to site,” he said.
Watsonia humilis Picture by Dr Dave McDonald
The city’s environmental managers have also reported the incident to their legal branch colleagues for possible action.
The damaged site is in the Broadlands industrial area just south of the N2 highway and between Somerset West and Sir Lowry’s Pass.
The presence of the critically endangered patch of Lourensford Alluvial Fynbos on the unfenced property was discovered last May by Cape Town botanist Dr Dave McDonald, during an environmental impact assessment as part of a rezoning application to change the site’s status from industrial to commercial.
McDonald said -he had mapped the vegetation in an area of 1.2ha, although this did not include an adjoining Eskom powerline servitude.
“So we’re dealing here with a postage stamp-sized piece of vegetation that is of global significance,” he said.
Clifford Dorse, the city’s biodiversity co-ordinator, said the watsonia population had been “of the highest conservation significance”.
It was also important to note that “a large portion of the site was a seasonal wetland. There was a lovely wetland there. The strip (that was bulldozed) had the best stuff in it.”
McDonald agreed: “They’ve taken out the most important part of the whole site.”
Dorse said the incident required “a swift and appropriate response from CapeNature and the city”.
