Sprawl more threat to trees than borer beetle

Rampant development will do far more harm to the Constantia valley’s green heritage than an invasive tree-killing beetle.

Colin Walker, the chairman of the Friends of Constantia Valley Greenbelt, speaking at the organisation’s annual general meeting, at the Constantia Sports Centre on Tuesday September 17, warned the polyphagous shot hole borer beetle could not “decimate the urban forest as effectively as inappropriate development. This is what we've got to fight against. Because this is going to devastate the valley in a very, very short time”.

Guest speaker Paddy Attwell, a representative of TreeKeepers and heritage spokesperson for Parkscape, spoke about the cultural landscape of the Constantia-Tokai valley, the importance of preserving trees and how vulnerable landscapes could be destroyed.

“Trees are absolutely essential for the character and sense of place of an area such as the Constantia-Tokai valley. We call that character and sense of place and beauty the cultural landscape,” he said.

“The walls of the valley were once lined with trees. The Tokai Forest once held between 800 000 and one million trees. About 95% of the Tokai Forest and 60% of the Cecilia Forest have now gone.

“In 2020, when they did the tree mapping exercise, the City accounted for about 2.7 million tall trees. When you consider that this relatively small area contained between 800 000 and a million trees, 2.7 million trees doesn't sound very much.”

With the threat of climate change looming, it was important to keep the city cool, and while trees were most the practical way of doing that, the City’s target to plant 2000 trees a year meant it would take 400 years to plant an area the size of the old Tokai Forest, he said.

“This means we have to look after the trees we have. Sure, we need to plant trees, but the existing trees are precious. So, I appeal to you to think 20 times before you cut down a tree, especially if it’s mature and contributes to the beauty of the townscape or landscape, regardless of origin,” Mr Attwell said.

According to Mr Walker, Cities of Opportunity, a 2023 Price Waterhouse Cooper report, ranked Cape Town’s environmental sustainability as below the global median.

The “appropriate policies” could “very easily” change that, but “inappropriate densification" remained the biggest threat to that goal, he said (“Greenbelt cleared five months after illegal felling,” Bulletin, September 12).

Friends of Constantia Valley Greenbelt had agreed to work with environmental organisations Parkscape, Sand River Catchment Forum and Treekeepers to fight “the common threat” of inappropriate densification and attacks on the boundaries of the valley’s greenbelts, he said.

Reflecting on the projects for the year, Mr Walker said five Wolwekloof Greenbelt neighbours had contributed to a clean up there. Similar work had been done in De Hel with help from expanded public works programme workers. In Silverhurst, the Friends had worked with Constantia Watch and the neighbourhood association championed by Dr Errol Elk to transform the greenbelt, and a security guard paid by neighbours now patrolled the area, Mr Walker said.

However, he added that the Friends had reduced funding for a maintenance project in the valley’s southern greenbelts, including Grootboschkloof, Pagasvlei and Spaanschemat - which were lined up for the City’s Liveable Urban Waterways programme - after the City delayed that programme in March.

According to mayoral committee member for water and sanitation Zahid Badroodien, the delay was primarily due to “reprioritisation of the capital budget in accordance with the City’s current borrowing capability and affordability constraints”.

Mr Walker said the Friends had subsequently reached an understanding with residents involved with the southern greenbelts that any money they raised would be ring-fenced for their maintenance.

“There's a lot more to be done in all these greenbelts, but there's another example of an arrangement where we are short of finances, and we just have to make things work, and there is a way to make it work,” Mr Walker said.

According to Friends treasurer Rob Thorp, the organisation spends 86% of the money its receives from donations, annual subscriptions and recycling efforts on the greenbelts.

The Friends had increased its annual income by 4.5%, but while subscriptions had increased from R166 411 to R173 840, proceeds from recycling had dropped from R158 200 to R146 429, he said.

“The big item of expenditure is conservation and preservation expenditure that has gone down from R148 420 to R131 673 and in some way is in line with the recycling decline,” he said.