TREES have become a sensitive subject of late, with Durban North residents calling the area a ‘graveyard of trees’.
uMhlanga residents have also been boycotting the culling of several milkwood trees to make way for new developments.

However, in eMdloti, the community has been striving to protect their leafy giants – especially the ones located in the pristine coastal forest.
Since April this year, the eMdloti Urban Improvement Precenct (UIP), the Umdloti Conservancy and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) have joined forces in the effort to preserve the forest through the assistance of a floristic study.

“We want to save what little is left of the pristine coastal forest, which is under threat from development in the area. We hope to eradicate alien infestation and return the forest to its natural state while preventing developments from encroaching on the the forest,” said Terry Rens of the Umdloti UIP.

One of the students who has been involved in the study is Thabiso Ngcamphalala. He is pursuing his BSC Honours degree in biological sciences.

The 27-year-old has been collecting data on the gaps that form within the forest when, for example, a tree dies or is culled.

“I want to learn what grows in these gaps. How does the new breaching sunlight affect what type of species normally would grow in that space?” he said.

According to the bits of data he has collected thus far, it would seem that a greater variety of species grow in large gaps while a greater abundance of plants can be found in smaller gaps.

Ngcamphalala theorised that the light affected the germination of the plants, as some species required a lot of light to grow while others did not.

The data collected by Ngcamphalala and the other students will guide the management of the forest.
It will help them to better understand the forest, when to introduce species manually or leave them to reintroduce themselves, he said.

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