I really love plants …. I love being in nature and finding peace in natural spaces…Even though I live very close I realise I don’t think I’ve ever been here before. I think I’m going to come here a lot more to see some of the animals and explore the biodiversity…. iI’s nice to actually come out into nature and feel that you are helping to restore something  - when you restore the line of healing you restore the land, you also restore something in yourself and in our fragmented society.
      These were some of the reasons which participants gave for joining the Princess Vlei Mandela Day planting on 20 July. Community members of all ages gathered to help restore the wetland environment on the Northern shore of Princess Vlei, in celebration of Mandela Day on July 18. 
       Kamva Nose, a conservation intern with the PVF, welcomed the group of 20 volunteers: ’We want to give back to nature, I come every morning here and hear the birds chirping … for me it is peaceful, a spiritual connection with mother nature .. I hope that when you come here you feel the same connection … As humans, we have responsibility, we are the custodians own nature. So let’s take care of it .’

Waiting for the volunteers were 200 plants, including Chrysanthemoides incana (Bietou) Leucadendron floridum (proteas), Salvia aurea ((Bruin Salie) and  Leonotus leonurus (Wilde Dagga).
    While we were planting, three Retreat residents, Allasandro Thareeq Byron walked past with their two dogs, Fluffy and Max. They are regular visitors and often fish in the vlei. They joined in helping with the planting.
      The Forum’s restoration team created this second pond earlier this year, to bring back the biodiversity that once thrived at Princess Vlei. These seasonal ponds were filled in when the vlei was dredged to prevent flooding over Prince George Drive.  
    We cannot restore the vlei to its original depth, but we are bringing back the ponds.  This will see the return of endangered species such as the micro frog which used to live here but is currently only found at Kenilworth Racecourse Conservation Area. In the old days locals gathered waterblommetjies at these ponds and shallow feeders, such as flamingos and spoonbills, would have frequented the area. (See for more about the ponds).
       ‘In the light of recent statistics of fast disappearing wetlands in our country and globally, this work is so important,’ said Mea Lashbrooke, one of the volunteer planters and a founder member of Princess Vlei Forum. ‘It’s wonderful to see so many here today. I have overheard questions and conversations about Mandela, about saving the planet, about saving the vlei from a mall. We are all learning from one another. Wetland ecosystems are vital to every aspect of the health of the planet and daily life.’
      Kamva reported that the bird life has increased markedly since work on the pond started. While we were planting, we saw a grey heron, cormorants, cisticolas, weavers and robin chats. 

• The Forum would like to thank all the volunteers, as well as the National Lotteries Commission and the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust, managed by Nedbank Private Wealth, for supporting our restoration project. Plants were donated by the Kirstenbosch branch of the Botanical Society of South Africa. We look forward to the flourishing life this pond will bring. 
  

Since early May, The Princess Vlei Forum has been bringing life back to the northern shore of Princess Vlei with the creation of a new seasonal pond (See A Heart Shaped Pond ), to help revive the magnificent seasonal wetland that once characterised Princess Vlei.
     This has been a group effort, with many hands helping to clear invasive species, revive indigenous plants that had been choked by grass and reeds, and plant indigenous species which were once abundant at Princess Vlei.

Planting benefits the plants, and the rich ecosystem that develops around the pound, including ducks, chameleons, frogs, insects, spoonbills and other waders, aquatic invertebrates and many others. But it also benefits all those who have the opportunity to get their hands in the soil and play a role in creating this flourishing life. This is particularly true for our young Princess Vlei Guardians. These experiences show them that you are never too young to help create a future where nature and humans, who are part of nature, can live harmoniously and flourish. They help to create an understanding of and love for the incredibly rich floral biodiversity in the fynbos kingdom, and spark their curiosity and kindness towards the many creatures who live in and around these ecosystems. A particularly exciting discovery has been the resident chameleons. 
      These are some of the planting events we have hosted this year, funded by the National Lotteries Commission.

On 30 May, in an event held in partnership with the Ingcungcu Sunbird Restoration Project,  twenty  Crestway high learners  planted 600 plants,  the following species: Zantedeschia aethiopica,  Elegia nuda,  Leucadendron laureolum, Imperata cylindrica, Berulea thunbergii, Watsonia tabularis, and Ehrharta calycina. Learners were taught about the importance of restoring wetland ecosystems and the role that seasonal ponds play within the broader freshwater system. They were taught how to plant indigenous species and how to idenitify the species that they were asked to plant.

On 16 June, 20 community members braved the rain and  dedicated Youth Day to helping create a better future for our youth. They put in nearly 300 plants, including Pelargonium triste,  Elegia nuda, Pelargonium cucculatum, Thamnochortus spicigerus. 

On 20 June, 32 children from Floreat and Harmony Primary put in 300 seedlings, as well as bag of rain daisies (dimorphotheca pluvials). Other species included Pelargonium Triste, Elegia Nuda, and the beautiful Wurmbea Stricta, or marsh flower. These learners too were given an understanding of how all life forms in the seasonal wetland work together, and how the plants they were putting in would contribute to creating a thriving ecosystem. 

In addition, for the past month Kamva Nose, our intern, has brought 27 students. Working in groups to 12,  from  CPUT to volunteer in clearing invasive plants and weeding our restoration sites. The students have also conducted insect, vegetation, bird, and frog surveys, and miniSASS surveys to assess the aquatic health of the vlei.  Kamva has helped to establish Princess Vlei as a great site for conservation students to develop their practice and get in volunteer hours.
    This exciting restoration project has been made possible with funding from the National Lotteries Commission, as well as the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust managed by Nedbank Private wealth, the Kirstenbosch Branch of the South African Botanical Society, and the Rowland and Leta Hill Trust. 

Reviving seasonal ponds at Princess VLei
By Emma Oliver

 If you had looked at Princess Vlei from Elfindale or Windsor Park eighty years ago, you would have looked across a field of spring flowers to a myriad seasonal ponds where locals gathered waterblommetjies and pelicans and flamingos gathered in large numbers.
     Human impacts have radically transformed the landscape since then. The Vlei was dredged to absorb the seasonal flood waters, creating a single deep vlei rather than a community of flowing seasonal ponds. The bulrush typha capensis grows thick around the shoreline, barring direct access and view of the shoreline. Buffalo and kikuyu grasses have taken over - in the past, hippos, eland and later buck would have kept the grass down. 
      Reviving seasonal ponds, which fill with the winter rains and dry out in summer,  is a critical part of our work in reviving vibrant ecosystems in Princess Vlei, to help us bring back the waterblommetjies, micro frogs and a host of other fauna and flora. We created the first seasonal pond In 2019 on the northern shore line. This year we have expanded our restoration work on this side of the vlei (set back by a City Mowing contractor destroying our plants) and have created a second seasonal pond. The area around this has been the focus of our planting efforts with school learners, tertiary students and community members. 

The heavy lifting was done in April and early May by our restoration team supervised by Neil Petersen, who cut and uprooted out the long thick grass, ensuring no shoots remained to over run the area again. Several sturdy Brazilian pepper trees were cut down, and their deep roots dug out and removed. Other invasives  such as erigeron and the typha capensis were removed. The team also unearthed years of accumulated rubbish - shoes, clothes, plastics, concrete, builders waste, all the usual suspects. 
The soil we unearthed was rich and black, full of worms, humus and healthy biting mole crickets. The pond, by now a heart shaped muddy piece of ground, was planted out with isolepsis grass, to attract micro frogs (Microbatrochella capensis). These tiny frogs, once flourishing at Princesss Vlei, have become critically endangered and are only known to be at the  Kenilworth Racecourse.

The ponds have been filled with the winter rains, and now the planting work is accompanied by the calls of the clicking stream frogs from the nearby reeds (a good sign of a healthy wetland), and a pair of yellow billed ducks have moved in. A number of community and school groups and student volunteers have helped to develop this ecosystem. 
This pond is a collective effort, with many hands making it possible (see Planting the pond). We hope that you will join us in celebrating this beautiful piece of restored life. 

• This exciting restoration project has been made possible with funding from the National Lotteries Commission, as well as the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust managed by Nedbank Private wealth, the Kirstenbosch Branch of the South African Botanical Society, and the Rowland and Leta Hill Trust.

Plastic pollution has a major impact on waterways such as Princess Vlei, harming local animals and creating an unsightly environment for those who go there to find beauty and peace. 
    But it has also become a major global threat, choking our oceans and waterways, killing thousands of sea birds and other animals each year, and multiplying other threats such as as climate change - the production produces greenhouse gases, it weakens ecosystems resilience, and contributes to flooding in cities due to clogged stormwater drains.  . It is now found everywhere, including in our blood, our brains, and breast milk.

     Plastic packaging and bottling has hugely enriched companies like Coca Cola, which take no responsibility for the waste they cause. Much is made of recycling as a solution, but only 9% is recycled, much of it can only be recycled once or not at all.
     It is easy to feel overwhelmed, but every action helps in tackling this life threatening issue. In May, the Princess Vlei Forum hosted a Tackling Plastic Workshop to explore how this issue can be taken up in local communities and schools. The workshop was attended by 15 participants, including 4 facilitators from the Princess Vlei Forum. Others were teachers and learners from Harmony Primary,  and Crestway High School, students from CPUT, and a members of the Ingcungcu Sunbird restoration Project.  
    The workshop aimed to give participants concrete ideas for tackling plastic in their commmunities.
     The workshop started with a presentation by Kamva Nose, which explained what plastic and microplastic pollution is, how it shows up in our bodies and in the environment, and how it impacts our personal health and our ecosystems. He also looked at the 5 R’s - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and repurpose. While recycling, reusing and repurposing have an important role to play, it is clear that our priority is to put reduce and refuse plastic, through consumer choices, and putting pressure on policy makers to make polluters pay, on  and own industries to find alternatives. 
   

The presentation was followed by a group discussion. It  became clear that plastic has become entrenched in our lives, and there are many obstacles to limiting its use. It was stressed that while behaviour and attitude change of communities is vital, it needs to be accompanied by actions to push for policy change, and change in the practice of retailers. A well informed community can help to drive this. 
      After the first group discussion, Denisha Anand did a presentation on examples of campaigns to raise awareness or push back against production. She gave an overview of strategies to tackle plastic waste, and gave examples of community specific campaigns such as the campaign to replace small sachets sold in poor communities in Asia with refilling containers supplied by the consumer. 

The participants then worked in groups to come up with ideas for campaigns in their own communities. Three campaigns were proposed:

• A poster campaign at tertiary institutions highlight the health risks of micro plastic pollution
  
• A creative ‘Monday to Friday’ campaign to motivate school learners to collect litter and recycle where possible
• A campaign to support informal recyclers and litter pickers, and incentivise the collection of plastic that is not recyclable and therefore does not bring in an income. 
  

The workshop has already had an impact, with participants raising awareness and sharing their knowledge. We hope this continues, and look forward to hearing what creative ways they are finding to tackle plastic in their communities