BEFORE I wrap up my ‘Home for the Holidays’series and wander further afield, let’s take a virtual walk in one of my favourite urban beauty spots.
The Ivungu River Nature Reserve has a special place in my heart. The name is said to be onomatopoeic, describing the sound the river makes as it flows over the waterfall into the cliff-lined Uvongo Beach lagoon. Uvongo, the name of the beach and the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast town, is a corruption of the original name bestowed upon the river by the Zulu people.Before our Lower South Coast towns were amalgamated into one big Hibiscus Coast Municipality, we were officially residents of Uvongo Borough.
It was this local authority that owned the little reserve, inland from the waterfall above the lagoon and on both banks of the river. It is slap bang in the middle of a densely populated residential area, a little green island of tranquility amidst the hustle and bustle of a well-developed seaside town.
For many years it was sorely neglected.
A reserve, even a little one, is expensive to maintain and many Uvongo residents were not too keen on the local authority spending their rates on what they saw as a bit of a luxury. Rates were much better spent fixing roads and keeping the town clean. Luckily not everyone felt that way.
One of them was Edgar Lee, an environmental consultant and an active member of the Uvongo Rotary Club (now amalgamated with the Margate club to form Rotary, Hibiscus Coast). About 20 years ago, he was looking for an environmental project for his fellow Rotarians to adopt. The little reserve fitted the bill perfectly. And Edgar happened to hook up with another remarkable Hibiscus Coast citizen.
Dave Halle is more than a dedicated conservationist. He is a mover and shaker and the hyperactive and charming initiator of all sorts of wonderful green projects and ideas. Dave doesn’t even live in Uvongo, but he was quite happy to take the neglected little reserve under his wing.
Back then, environmentally-minded farmers were linking up to form legally constituted rural conservancies. By embracing greener farming practices and by working together under the umbrella of an established conservancy, they could better protect the natural environment in which they worked and lived.
If the farmers could do it, then why couldn’t the townies? The Rotarians started a trust and Dave gathered together a handful of Uvongo residents to form one of the Hibiscus Coast’s very first urban conservancies. Bill and I have been members since it was first constituted and Bill has served a couple of terms as chairman and is still on the a committee, so this little reserve is an important part of our lives.
It is such a pleasure being intimately associated with such a conservation success story. The conservancy still enjoys the support of the Hibiscus Rotarians – and it has been successful beyond any of our imaginings.When the conservancy came into being, it was almost impossible to go into the reserve. For years, invasive alien weeds, including pine and gum trees, had grown there, unchecked and had virtually choked the natural vegetation. Evicting them was one mighty battle. Invasive aliens, often nurtured in neighbouring gardens by ignorant or disinterested property owner, still slip over the fence and take root in the reserve. However, a robust, ongoing alien maintenance programme keeps them at bay.
Once the conservancy began to win the weed-busting battle, members started clearing the old, overgrown trails. Bridges over streams were rebuilt and signage was created to make the reserve more user friendly. The conservancy even produced a magnificent little booklet on the reserve. After all, members wanted the people of Uvongo to appreciate their urban treasure.
Severe flooding washed away sections of the bank a few years ago. Rather than see it as a setback, conservancy members saw it as an opportunity to reroute some of the old trails and to open up sections of the reserve that had been inaccessible to visitors. And the flooded river did a marvellous job of clearing away the heavy infestation of weeds on a couple of the inaccessible islands.
Today it is restored to almost pristine perfection. The riverine forest is a tree-hugger’s delight and the little reserve is alive with an amazing variety of mammals, birds, reptiles and insects. In fact upcountry visitors now recognised it as a South Coast birding hotspot.
Its success story does not end there. Ivungu River Reserve has proved to be something of a pilot project. Since then, Dave has been actively involved in the formation of many other local urban conservancies that take care of a number of local beauty spots and nature trails He was also responsible for bringing the conservancies and other environmental organisations together to form the recently constituted South Coast Conservancy Forum. As an environmental lobby group in our community, it has a strong voice.
Dave was also the inspiration behind a beach walk series that proved very popular back in 2009. After that he and local conservancies started the ongoing Walking in Nature rambles to introduce the public to all our well-maintained conservancies. Then there is Dig – an acronym for Delight in Indigenous Gardening. It is truly a delightful organisation. Formed under the umbrella of the Ivungu River Conservancy, it is simply an affiliation of local greenies who meet regularly to promote wildlife friendly gardening and an interest in our indigenous flora. Computer ‘nerd’ Peter Vos keeps it all together by sending out regular emails to anyone interested in Dig and other green happenings.
There are regular Dig get togethers at local gardens and nature reserves and every now and then local greenies are inspanned to organise an indigenous garden show and plant sale.A strange thing is happening in green circles along our beautiful coastline. Our conservancies and environmental organisations all have their separate aims and projects but more and more the lines are blurred. Our green community is slowly becoming a single, unified force, working together for a greener, better future.
This beautiful little urban reserve – where last weekend I had the pleasure of watching a sunbird building her nest – is just one reminder of what our greenies are achieving.
