Not wanting a repeat of the 2017 fires, the Knysna community have been eliminating alien trees from the area; a public hack was hosted to get more done in the public space.
Knysna, South Africa (14 July 2024) — The Knysna and Brenton on Sea communities took part in a “public hack” on the 17th of June 2024, to get rid of invasive plants that pose a fire risk to the area. This is being done to prevent fires like those that swept through the town in 2017 and left so much damage behind.
After the fires, a group of residents from Brenton on Sea decided that the risk of fire was too significant so they joined to form Eden Resilience, a non-profit community project. The aim to rid the area of alien trees, shrubs and plants, to hopefully prevent intense wildfires in the future.
Makkie Schepers, Candice Meyer and Julie Stevenson got together, bought a bakkie using funds they had raised, and started team “Alien Busters“. They hired unemployed people from Knysna and started clearing private land in collaboration with landowners. The process was strategically managed to clear specific corridors of alien species.
Speaking to a recent addition to the team, Roxanne Kruger, we learned about the “public hack”. The idea was for the public to lend a helping hand to clear public spaces of fast-burning alien trees. They earmarked Black Wattle for the project and the community came through!
“I became involved in 2024 with Domitilla Raimondo as I wanted to get the public involved as our public spaces were under mega stress from alien invasive trees. We organised a public hack at the Old Drift on the Phantom Pass Road. This was our first organised event.
Approximately 20 people arrived, young (as young as 5) and old people arrived with saws to remove over 200 black wattle trees that had come up. We applied Kaput, a paint-on systemic herbicide, within 10 minutes of cutting the tree down and only on the freshly cut stump.”
The public hack was done for two main reasons: to prevent future fires like the one in 2017 and to preserve the biodiversity of Knysna’s critically endangered sand fynbos, endangered shale fynbos, and beautiful old-growth Afromontane forest, which has been systematically lost due to wood cutting and then plantation forestry.
Another perk of hosting the public hack was to give community members a chance to get active instead of anxious.
So by clearing together as a town, we are:
1. Creating jobs and getting citizens active in the management of our town.
2. Stopping the risk of anyone getting hurt by future fires.
3. They’re helping our biodiversity – our very threatened ecosystems
4. They’re fixing carbon and bringing back forests that have been lost over the last 200 years to what was a forested town.
This was just the first public hack, and it was hugely successful! If you want to join in on the next one or get involved in other ways, there is a WhatsApp group running where you can stay updated. It is listed on the poster below. The poster is old, but the information is relevant for those wanting to join next time.
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