I have always enjoyed plants and in moving about the country living in one place after another have had to learn a whole new set of plant names each time. Worcester to Fisherhaven is not far in terms of kilometres, but it is a world away as far as the vegetation is concerned. Just learning about the 450 species that occurred in the 150ha of the Karoo Botanic Garden (and even finding many of them) was a major mission and I can't say I was ever on top of things. There is a huge problem in that "species" is a poorly recognised and defined entity. The variability that exists in nature is also largely and grossly underrated. My account of Haworthia is recorded in a Wordpress site (haworthiaupdates.org) and physically in many articles and about 14 books of various sizes. All that writing - and writing is really to clarify, establish and share what you know and what you do not know - has by no means completed the picture or satisfied everyone else's interested in the subject. I end up in Haworthia asking myself why I spent so much time and effort doing what I did. The answer is hard to find other than to suggest a passion for and love of nature. Perhaps it is because of the energy and feel of living things and the outdoors? The sheer wonder of an incredible creation that unfortunately distracts us from a greater wonder of what created it and why.
Here at Fisherhaven I find a remarkable community in a poorly planned and developed small country village on the shores of an estuary a bit away from the sea itself. The village is located between the two very popular holiday and retirement resorts of Hermanus and Kleinmond and is close neighbour to the fishing seaside village of Hawston. The geology at Fisherhaven is remarkable and I need to understand more about it. It is said to be Bokkeveld shale but it is a bit more complex than that I think. Is there some overlay of tertiary gravel? The Cape is famous for its sandstones and the whole flora of this geology is a famous world floral kingdom, the Fynbos. There are shale bands in the sandstones with associated flora but that flora is quite different to that of the Bokkeveld shales further to the north that is classified largely as Renosterveld. There is of course a close association between Fynbos and Renosterveld and this is what this site will be exploring.
The residents and landowners of Fisherhaven seem to be passionate about the rural atmosphere, but I sense a lack of appreciation of where and how that atmosphere is generated. The plots are large and the basic services of a modern township are absent. The plots are large and the roads (and pavements) wide. This alone means cost of services per household are disproportionate to new developments and it is unlikely to be economically sensible to provide these in the face of the same pressing needs elsewhere. There is no storm water drainage and many stands (erven) are poorly drained. The answer is for a mechanical shovel to be sent in to roughly dig a severe trench, scattering the extracted soil to either side and providing an improvised culvert for road access to plots affected. On top of this is extremely severe alien weed infestation of a vegetation type that is structurally largely a low herbaceous one. Fisherhaven is not a naturally treed area and there are barely any larger woody shrubs approaching the description of a tree.
The geology being as complex as it is, means that there is shallow skeletal soil sometimes with tertiary sand, and maybe even ferricrete, as well as more recent sand deposits. The latter is from sand blown out of the Bot River estuary as it has risen and fallen with periodic closure of the mouth. This basic variation in substrate results in a profusion of plant communities to the degree that hardly any of the designated erven seem to have the same set of plant species growing there. This is of course exacerbated by human intervention and the way in which plots are cleared either for actual building or for the need to manage alien weed infestation as required by local regulation. Some owners do indeed have some feel for the natural environment and of those some have successfully managed to maintain some sort of integrity of the naturally occurring flora. Others have been less fortunate. In many cases boundary fence construction has extended far on to neighbouring un-built on erven with disastrous consequences for plant life there. A disturbed soil surface and profile are invitations to alien weeds as well as some vigorous local pioneer species. All home owners traditionally want lawns and the easiest of those to acquire and establish has been kikuyu grass. Initially it was understood that this grass does not seed. This is patently false and it disturbs me that kikuyu is not seen for one of the most aggressive enemies of natural flora that we have.
The roadside pavement areas take a real beating and where adjacent plots have been built on and fenced, the surface areas are managed quite severely. Generally the surfaces end up as dry grassed areas managed by mowing and “weedeating”. In many places the primitive open storm-water drains make maintenance difficult and weedy untidy verges occur. Any building activity also boils over onto verges and when established properties are upgraded or subjected to alterations, the obvious place to work from is the roadside. When new homes are built on plots, the footprint of the new home covers virtually the entire plot, no matter what the size. This footprint covers the sidewalk and extends beyond the fence (boundary line) when any fence or wall is erected. As there is no sewage system as such feeding a single piped system, there is the need for conservancy tanks that are pumped regularly. But these require the excavation of a massive 10000 litre underground reservoir and another addition to the destructive footprint.
Finally there is the problem of building rubble and waste, where any place out of the immediate eye seems to be fair game for dumping. Certainly this was so in the past and it still happens. That leads to the problem of garbage and household waste disposal. Again in the past there seems to have been a lackadaisical attitude to dumping and the whole area is littered with garbage of many kinds. In the present with a well organised disposal arrangement there is a segment of society that throws anything and everything just where the moment strikes. The windy nature of Fisherhaven ensures that this is well distributed across the landscape.
It is difficult for someone aware of all these issues over and above knowing just what the nature of the vegetation is and what its species constituents are, to understand why the whole of Fisherhaven is in such dire straits ecologically. Our housing needs seem disproportionate to the real needs of any normal family and the garden styles all tend to a standard European style with lawns and trees and plants suited to easy propagation and cultivation. The consequence is that there is a secondary range of alien plants that make up an infestation of greater proportion than that of officially categorised weeds. Examples of this are particularly kikuyu grass, Buffalo grass and palm trees. The latter are not included in listed weeds but when Washingtonia palms on Riverside drive reach maturity, the amount of seed shed and mole activity is going to result in a massive problem.
Once a plot is built on and fenced, the sad fact is that the natural vegetation on the plot is gone and very few of the massive original number of dwarf species that made up the original plant cover will remain.
The magic words of economists, bankers and developers is that of “sustainable development” and “economic growth”. It can only come at cost and it used to be that an environmental cost was a consideration. Nowadays there are requirements in respect of environmental impact studies that take into account the plant species, their rarity and there conservation status. This might be alright if it was that simple and species were fixed entities always recognisable and countable as such. But that is not the case. Species are highly variable and dynamic systems, often poorly bounded and misunderstood. I personally cannot pretend to know just how significant the vegetation and constituent plant species of Fisherhaven are. Whatever is said, the fact is that land is seen as an unlimited resource open to uitilization of some kind or other.
I do know there is a certainty that much of it is doomed. This we are going to lose it forever. Fisherhaven does have some recognised open public areas that some elements would gladly convert to the commonality of common garden plants. But these surely can be maintained true to their natural tradition and free of building waste, free from intrusion of any kind but to aid and foster what has always been there. Unfortunately there are natural events that drive vegetation health and change. One of these is fire. So here again is a hurdle. What can be done to maintain any space in a healthy vegetated natural state? The best answer is absolutely nothing if we do not even know or care about what is or ever was there. That seems to be all I can do about it. Awaken at least myself to the magnificence and wonder of a remarkable creation.
Martin Bruce Bayer
August 2015
Here at Fisherhaven I find a remarkable community in a poorly planned and developed small country village on the shores of an estuary a bit away from the sea itself. The village is located between the two very popular holiday and retirement resorts of Hermanus and Kleinmond and is close neighbour to the fishing seaside village of Hawston. The geology at Fisherhaven is remarkable and I need to understand more about it. It is said to be Bokkeveld shale but it is a bit more complex than that I think. Is there some overlay of tertiary gravel? The Cape is famous for its sandstones and the whole flora of this geology is a famous world floral kingdom, the Fynbos. There are shale bands in the sandstones with associated flora but that flora is quite different to that of the Bokkeveld shales further to the north that is classified largely as Renosterveld. There is of course a close association between Fynbos and Renosterveld and this is what this site will be exploring.
The residents and landowners of Fisherhaven seem to be passionate about the rural atmosphere, but I sense a lack of appreciation of where and how that atmosphere is generated. The plots are large and the basic services of a modern township are absent. The plots are large and the roads (and pavements) wide. This alone means cost of services per household are disproportionate to new developments and it is unlikely to be economically sensible to provide these in the face of the same pressing needs elsewhere. There is no storm water drainage and many stands (erven) are poorly drained. The answer is for a mechanical shovel to be sent in to roughly dig a severe trench, scattering the extracted soil to either side and providing an improvised culvert for road access to plots affected. On top of this is extremely severe alien weed infestation of a vegetation type that is structurally largely a low herbaceous one. Fisherhaven is not a naturally treed area and there are barely any larger woody shrubs approaching the description of a tree.
The geology being as complex as it is, means that there is shallow skeletal soil sometimes with tertiary sand, and maybe even ferricrete, as well as more recent sand deposits. The latter is from sand blown out of the Bot River estuary as it has risen and fallen with periodic closure of the mouth. This basic variation in substrate results in a profusion of plant communities to the degree that hardly any of the designated erven seem to have the same set of plant species growing there. This is of course exacerbated by human intervention and the way in which plots are cleared either for actual building or for the need to manage alien weed infestation as required by local regulation. Some owners do indeed have some feel for the natural environment and of those some have successfully managed to maintain some sort of integrity of the naturally occurring flora. Others have been less fortunate. In many cases boundary fence construction has extended far on to neighbouring un-built on erven with disastrous consequences for plant life there. A disturbed soil surface and profile are invitations to alien weeds as well as some vigorous local pioneer species. All home owners traditionally want lawns and the easiest of those to acquire and establish has been kikuyu grass. Initially it was understood that this grass does not seed. This is patently false and it disturbs me that kikuyu is not seen for one of the most aggressive enemies of natural flora that we have.
The roadside pavement areas take a real beating and where adjacent plots have been built on and fenced, the surface areas are managed quite severely. Generally the surfaces end up as dry grassed areas managed by mowing and “weedeating”. In many places the primitive open storm-water drains make maintenance difficult and weedy untidy verges occur. Any building activity also boils over onto verges and when established properties are upgraded or subjected to alterations, the obvious place to work from is the roadside. When new homes are built on plots, the footprint of the new home covers virtually the entire plot, no matter what the size. This footprint covers the sidewalk and extends beyond the fence (boundary line) when any fence or wall is erected. As there is no sewage system as such feeding a single piped system, there is the need for conservancy tanks that are pumped regularly. But these require the excavation of a massive 10000 litre underground reservoir and another addition to the destructive footprint.
Finally there is the problem of building rubble and waste, where any place out of the immediate eye seems to be fair game for dumping. Certainly this was so in the past and it still happens. That leads to the problem of garbage and household waste disposal. Again in the past there seems to have been a lackadaisical attitude to dumping and the whole area is littered with garbage of many kinds. In the present with a well organised disposal arrangement there is a segment of society that throws anything and everything just where the moment strikes. The windy nature of Fisherhaven ensures that this is well distributed across the landscape.
It is difficult for someone aware of all these issues over and above knowing just what the nature of the vegetation is and what its species constituents are, to understand why the whole of Fisherhaven is in such dire straits ecologically. Our housing needs seem disproportionate to the real needs of any normal family and the garden styles all tend to a standard European style with lawns and trees and plants suited to easy propagation and cultivation. The consequence is that there is a secondary range of alien plants that make up an infestation of greater proportion than that of officially categorised weeds. Examples of this are particularly kikuyu grass, Buffalo grass and palm trees. The latter are not included in listed weeds but when Washingtonia palms on Riverside drive reach maturity, the amount of seed shed and mole activity is going to result in a massive problem.
Once a plot is built on and fenced, the sad fact is that the natural vegetation on the plot is gone and very few of the massive original number of dwarf species that made up the original plant cover will remain.
The magic words of economists, bankers and developers is that of “sustainable development” and “economic growth”. It can only come at cost and it used to be that an environmental cost was a consideration. Nowadays there are requirements in respect of environmental impact studies that take into account the plant species, their rarity and there conservation status. This might be alright if it was that simple and species were fixed entities always recognisable and countable as such. But that is not the case. Species are highly variable and dynamic systems, often poorly bounded and misunderstood. I personally cannot pretend to know just how significant the vegetation and constituent plant species of Fisherhaven are. Whatever is said, the fact is that land is seen as an unlimited resource open to uitilization of some kind or other.
I do know there is a certainty that much of it is doomed. This we are going to lose it forever. Fisherhaven does have some recognised open public areas that some elements would gladly convert to the commonality of common garden plants. But these surely can be maintained true to their natural tradition and free of building waste, free from intrusion of any kind but to aid and foster what has always been there. Unfortunately there are natural events that drive vegetation health and change. One of these is fire. So here again is a hurdle. What can be done to maintain any space in a healthy vegetated natural state? The best answer is absolutely nothing if we do not even know or care about what is or ever was there. That seems to be all I can do about it. Awaken at least myself to the magnificence and wonder of a remarkable creation.
Martin Bruce Bayer
August 2015
