In early October, large trees could be seen falling one after the other along the mountain, while people, armed with chainsaws and strapped together in threes beneath a helicopter, flew up and down the inaccessible slopes of Table Mountain.
The strange sight, however, formed part of a necessary mission to remove invasive alien trees in an effort to protect the Western Cape’s unique floral kingdom.
Also read: Clearing alien trees can help reduce climate change impact on Cape Town’s water supply
18 volunteer ‘Helihackers’ consisting of skilled mountaineers and tree surgeons risked their lives to remove over 1 300 pines and other invasive trees from the upper slopes of the mountain and 800 invasives from the lower slopes in two Helihack operations over just five days in early October.
The team worked with multiple partners on Table Mountain to remove the invasives, including The Sugarbird Trust, which works with SANParks approval.
According to veteran Helihacker and mountaineer Douw Steyn, the team felled trees in a wide area between Newlands Ravine and Kirstenbosch, reported Times Live.
‘Table Mountain is the only area where we have worked which has a lot of people using it. We had to close hiking trails for the safety of the public when we were working,’ said Steyn
‘This, combined with fickle weather, especially the southeaster which forced us to select suitable days at short notice, complicated the planning and logistics. But we didn’t have to worry about the logistics of camping up in the mountains because these were single-day operations close to home,’ he added.
Initially scheduled to take place between 6 and 8 October, the infamous southeaster forced the team to stay grounded. Despite this, they managed to target hundreds of invasive trees using their fitness and climbing skills to get to dangerous slopes on the eastern side of the mountain.
Take to the Sky with a solo tandem paragliding experience for R999 (valued at R1 300). Get it here.
Another veteran Helihacker, Dr Kate Larmuth, said the slopes of Newlands were steep, loose, wet and slippery, making it more difficult than they had expected.
‘We saw large pine carcasses still there from the late 80s and early 90s, when the framed “A-Team” were trained to clear the pines on the cliffs. If they hadn’t done so, our task would have been even monumental. Some of the larger trees we felled off the cliff edges were ringbarked around the same time but survived,’ she said.
Given the high-risk nature of the operation, one might ask whether Helihacking is really necessary.
Dr Glen Moncrieff of the South African Environmental Observation Network points out in a SANParks statement that alien invasive plants not only threaten indigenous vegetation but also often cause damaging fires with higher intensity that are harder to manage than those occurring in native vegetation.
‘The alien plants also use a lot of water, thereby reducing the water available by both the indigenous plants and downstream users,’ added Moncrieff.
The tireless helihackers also spent the past weekend on another operation in Greyton, in partnership with the organisation Wild Restoration Greyton.
Over 12 000 hectares have been cleared in 21 operations in areas such as Greyton, Tsitsikamma, Milner Peak, Hex River and the Limietberg mountains since the Helihacks started in 2017, founder and arborist Aleck McKirdy told Times Live.
Explore Cape Town and its surroundings with these incredible deals on cars for under 100k. Find car listings here.
Also read:
Table Mountain rangers gifted bicycles in support of conservation efforts
Picture: Wilderness Search and Rescue WSAR Western Cape / Facebook
