The City of Cape Town is in the process of obtaining a permit to conduct open burns of vegetation at the Blaauwberg Nature Reserve to remove invasive alien vegetation.
This forms part of the Environmental Resource Management Department’s large-scale ecological restoration project east of Blaauwberg Hill in the Blaauwberg Nature Reserve.
Over 400 hectares of dense invasive alien vegetation (mainly the Australian wattle species, Acacia saligna, known as Port Jackson willow) will be cleared, and the area restored to critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos over a period of several years.
The restoration project has two burn components which will take place when weather conditions are favourable, i.e. a summer/autumn burn between March and April 2013 and a winter/spring burn between May and September 2013.
The burns will be conducted in terms of a permit for controlled burning to be issued by Subcouncil 1 of the City of Cape Town. The Environmental Resource Management Department’s Biodiversity Management Branch will ensure that the procedure is conducted safely and efficiently. The required burning permits will be obtained from the Subcouncil, the City’s Air Quality Management Section, and the Fire and Rescue Services Department (which will also conduct a pre-inspection of the area).
The burns will take place on suitable week days, Monday to Thursday. Neighbouring residents and land owners will be notified of the exact dates of the burns by telephonic and e-mail notifications where possible.
The project includes an important research component that resulted from collaborations between the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) Project of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; the City of Cape Town; the University of Stellenbosch; and the South African National Biodiversity Institute.
The MSB Project aims to store seeds for 25% of the world’s flora and to use this resource in ecosystem and species restoration projects The results of the research is intended to feed directly into management and, in this case, optimal restoration interventions.
Some of the nature reserves managed by the City require the proliferation of a natural fire regime, without which our unique and irreplaceable indigenous vegetation would not be able to regenerate.
The Blaauwberg Nature Reserve comprises various vegetation types, including Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, Cape Flats Dune Strandveld and Swartland Shale Renosterveld which must burn occasionally to stimulate new growth and to remove flammable dead plant material.
For more information on the City’s nature reserves, please visit www.capetown.gov.za/naturereserves
