The three green thumbs of Ballito

September is Arbour Month and The Courier got to know three local ‘tree doctors’ who help to keep the North Coast green.

Simon Bundy, Alex Whitehead and Luke Maingard from Sustainable Development Projects (SDP) Ecological and Environmental Services are a trio of ecologists based in Ballito.

Bundy, the ‘old man’ among the three at 51, was born in Scotland and grew up in Zimbabwe, Malawi and SA and is very involved in greening many of the estates on the Dolphin Coast.

“What a lot of people seem to forget is that a garden should not just be about ‘a tree’ but rather about a whole habitat.”

He said a large part of his work was playing a guidance role in the estates, making sure they conform to environmental best practices and that the mini ecosystems within the estates were well balanced.

“People want instant gratification, they want a tree that will grow in no time. It is better to plant trees such as Figs or Milkwoods – they may take longer but they are so much more worth it.”

Whitehead, who grew up in Maidstone and received a BSc degree from Rhodes University before going on to get his honours in ichthyology and fishery sciences, is jokingly called the ‘Eskom tree saver’ by his two colleagues.

“I am the guy who walks the lines before Eskom puts up the poles to make sure no unnecessary damage is done to the environment and to reroute the path if there are any indigenous trees threatened.”

Bundy told The Courier that Whitehead started off doing some student work with him, identifying sensitive dune vegetation along the coast.

“One day he was here and he just never left,” he joked.

The third member of the trio is Luke Maingard, a candidate ecologist who is studying for his BSc in Environmental Science from Rhodes.

“I enjoy the balance between office work and getting out and about facing unique challenges in beautiful surroundings,” said Maingard. Bundy said KZN’s wild spaces had been under threat for centuries.

“A big part of what we do is just trying to identify pristine environments in KZN. People have been living here for more than 500 years and the environment shows it, even before Europeans arrived people were burning large stretches of coastal growth to make space for grazing animals.” Bundy said now it was a case of damage control.

“We need to identify and protect all the micro habitats we have left, from dune vegetation to wetlands and coastal forest. So much space is taken up by people and our activities that they are more precious than ever.”

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