Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Planting Spekboom

As most of the Addo Elephant National Park is made up of what used to be farmlands, big parts of the park consist of open fields.  Addo has embarked on a project where locals are used to plant spekboom on these fields to help and bring the natural bush back quicker.  Spekboom (sometimes referred to as elephant bush as the ellies love to eat them) is an indigenous succulent bush and grows very easily and quickly, making it the ideal plant for the park.  Because it contains so much water, it supplements the elephants' water intake which is one of the reasons its possible for Addo to have such a big concentration of these magnificent giants. 

A team of workers consist of three members.  The first guy uses a drill machine to drill a hole into the hard ground, the second guy puts the spekboom branches (which are harvested in designated areas and will form roots very quickly) while the third guy used a pole to close the hole and compact it again.  The fourth guy in the picture is the foreman who was on site when we visited.

6 comments:

  1. Who is holding the gun? I guess that is one way to ensure work is done quickly - I for one would not be hanging around there for very long - don't they have all the big 5 in that park......

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  2. I'll also try the anonymous route although I'm not a spammer. AJ here from OMBH... I've tried too many other ways of posting comments... always failing, so... let me try this way! ;-)

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  3. It's a treat to see all the people working together for such a good cause. Last week here in East Africa, I photographed a team of workers erecting a fence around my garden. Five men stood and watched while a sixth one dug the fence post holes with a panga! I am sorry if I seemed "maudlin" in my comment on Gaelyn's post earlier this week. I don't know any SA bloggers and love your posts about PE. We regularly (every three months on our leave break) ride through PE to the Cape. We also often stay with friends in Greenacres Village. So I hope we can meet you one day. Thanks for your comments on my blog. Have a great day. Jo (Tanzania)

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  4. Love the idea of reforestation and getting the locals involved too.

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  5. There was a ranger holding a gun in the background keeping an eye out, but because we were way out in an open field nothing would have been able to creep up on us. The vehicles were very close by.

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  6. wonderful to see revegatation progressing. I'm patiently nurturing an ankle-biter hedge of spekboom cuttings. After the winter rain ...!

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