It’s happened. We stand before you somewhat tattered and scratched, with mussed hair and earth under our fingernails, to say Ferncliffe forest wilding is three years old. What was once just the wisp of a dream is real. There are 500 trees in the ground to prove it. There is an entire wetland piping with bird calls where once a stagnant tangle of Mauritius Thorn ruled. Donors – you – have provided work to the Best Team out there, in a city where decent work is a luxury. And you’ve helped us prove that the best way to start a forest restoration project is to begin dreaming…
Remember these early sketches, when Connor was doodling and deciding on how to capture an idea in graphic form?
We still love the ogee shape in the logo, all fluid and organic, a portal of sorts, containing wonder.
Our principles, too, were great to decide on, and then convert into pictograms.
Of our nine ‘decrees’, the only one we’ve had to adjust is using no chemicals. KwaZulu-Natal’s summer growth frenzy forced a reckoning, and Lantana, Bugweed and other nasties have since had their cut stems smeared with herbicide. It’s called adaptive management in restoration lingo, and is all about survival 😉
Where it matters, we hope we’ve stood firm. Some months ago, an email pinged into the box from a large fossil fuel company. A really, really large one, you’ll know it – think Greenpeace being sued, or Wild Coast whales being deafened? There was an invitation to discuss potential collaboration. We didn’t reply. One day, when the ‘Nature-based Solutions’ division of such companies is larger than the fossil fuel extraction one, we could rethink. Right now? No.
But it’s celebration time, no time for worries. Good things come in threes they say (perhaps the three Bush Blackcaps we saw on our second birthday were a harbinger). We have so many lovely things dashing through our lives right now that it’s hard to choose. The Little Sparrowhawks, sitting in winter sun? Helios, our rock star hyrax, also soaking up the rays? Adorable Western Natal Green snakelets dozing in seedling trays; Cape White-eyes snuggling on a branch (love is not restricted to humans)? Or how about wee structures erected around vulnerable seedlings – made by a volunteer clearing invasive groundcovers from the Dell?
Caring about the living things around us matters. So does imagining a better world.
When a group of youngsters from Edendale Primary School came to visit, thanks in part to SANBI and in extra-large part to a Very Generous Person, it struck us how it took a while before they found their forest feet. At first, seeing detail in the mass of green escaped them. When team member Wandile pointed out a butterfly or interesting seed, most took ages to spy the treasure. A reminder that everyone needs to learn to look around them, and train our minds to see the creatures often trying to survive right in front of us.
For those interested in the numbers:
We’ve planted 504; 95% are alive and growing, growing.
We’ve created 356 work days, transferring around R120,000 into the workers’ pockets.
We’ve initially cleared 21,254 square meters of invasive alien vegetation, whoop! (And done follow-up on most of this.)
When we say ‘we’, that includes you, obviously. We couldn’t have got here without you! Thank you so much for helping us do what we can to help one small forest expand rather than shrink.
Connor & Janine
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