The Pine Tree Project

We had an epically successful weekend, albeit some mist and rain which gave us a late start on Saturday.

The Wonder Valley area between Monk's Cowl and Injasuthi is infested with Pine Trees so we will be busy here for a while. This time around we felled well over 300 trees.

Thanks to Husqvarna, Camperdown Mowers and Construction, Pangolin Manufacturing, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and MCSA KZN for supporting us on our mission.
 

So a few developments since my last post..

MCSA KZN Section (mountain Club of South Africa) has bought us 4 new Husqvarna T435 top handle chainsaws, Camperdown Mowers gave us a fantastic deal on these machines.

We did a wattle eradication exercise this last weekend, on the upper reaches of the Umgeni, in Dargle. Very close to Inhlosane..
This was very hard work, surprisingly hot for this time of the year, steep slopes requiring ropework, and lots of debris on the slopes in the form of rotten pieces from trees that were felled 2 years ago.
Facebook link here:   web.facebook.com/pinebusters/posts/570989727623733

We are really upping the game for our pine eradication work in the berg as well, on our last Pine Bust we had 5 chainsaw operators, and felled more than 300 invasive pine trees.

You can see our latest updates here:  web.facebook.com/pinebusters .

Please like and share our page, to increase awareness and our exposure on social media..

We do have some funding requirements, so if anyone feels the need to help out with a donation of any kind, this would be very welcome. All funds go towards gear needed for our efforts.
Alien pines in the Berg threaten the grasslands, which are home to numerous fauna and flora species, and also threaten water security f or the future, the Berg being a very important water catchment area.

,Cheers
PapaD

 

Guys, thanks for your interest in the past..

www.facebook.com/pinebusters

So we have a 3 day working pine eradication hike coming up next weekend 11 to 13 March.
We have at least 5 chainsaw teams ready for action, and a couple of manual saw teams as well.
Our issue is that we only have 3 working radios at the moment, one is damaged, and a member that has 2 private radios
and usually is a stalwart member of our group, is not able to join due to long covid issue since January LAST year. We have found that
these radios are a huge bonus to us in terms of safety when working on the very steep slopes, planning and deployment of the teams,
and reporting back results for data collating, which is very important to our on board ecologist, and EKZNW.

We are using Zartek ZA-720 radios at the moment, but as far as I know, most of the Zartek range will be able to talk to these  radios.

Bearing in mind too, that we are all volunteers, and bear our own costs in terms of personal safety equipment, time, transport to and from work site, clothing that takes strain working in this sort of environment etc.

If you are able to assist us in any way, please PM or Whatsapp me on 082.334.6122
Please be assured that anything that is donated will be used for the purpose which it is intended, in a transparent manner. Monies could be paid to MCSA (Mountain Club of South Africa) KZN Section account, where it will be controlled on payout, or direct to the supplier. Cost of the radios is about R700 per unit.

Many thanks.
Roger
PapaD

Hi VE!

It has been some time since Pine Busters’ last update on this forum, but we are alive and well and continue to go from strength to strength.

We have made good progress since our last post in March 2022. In August 2023, Pine Busters gained official recognition from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife when our core members were inducted as EKZNW Honorary Officers. We now have the unqualified support of Ezemvelo and work in close cooperation with the conservation managers of different regions who help us to execute our busts and often provide us with logistical assistance, e.g. accommodation and porters. A special thanks in this regard is due to Mark Robertson (recently retired from Monk’s Cowl), who, for a decade or more, was highly supportive of Pine Busters, instrumental in helping us gain official recognition, and personally joined us on numerous busts, which he enriched with his cheerful spirit and knowledge of the Berg. The authorization of the use of chainsaws has transformed our ability to clear infested areas and tackle big, highly reproductive trees.

One of our most important advances has been in data-capture, which has moved from paper-based records to direct mobile capture, allowing upload of all data about a given tree (age, terrain, location) to a single database. This has enabled us to accurately map all trees felled, better understand the growth patterns of pines over the years, and relate our data to data from other sources, e.g. the Cathedral Peak Forestry Station research catchments of the 1950s–70s. Thanks to this improved data, we are starting to gain a more precise and quantifiable picture of the impact that pines have on the Berg’s grasslands and rivers. This data has also shown that ringbarking – a previously used technique – does more harm than good and tends to result in mass seeding events that only intensify infestation. A clear example of this was the Mhlwazini valley where in 2011 nine mature pines were ringbarked and successive seeding events thereafter produced around 800 trees. This valley has now been cleared of pine.

Here are some key stats that highlight the impact of our work between March 2022 and November 2025:

• 33 busts
• 7,818 pines felled, most between 4 and 15 years in age
• 2025 has been our most productive year yet, with 3,463 trees felled this year alone
• Largest tree felled: 110 cm in diameter (Injisuthi High Waterfall Gully, August 2025)

Other highlights include:

• Collaboration with the Cathkin Valley conservancy group, who have been working independently in the greater Monk’s Cowl area and have joined us on several busts
• Greater brand visibility on social media and in EKZNW offices
• Continued presentations to interested parties to raise awareness about the pine problem in the Berg
• Numerous welcome donations which cover operating costs and gear maintenance

Our current focus areas are the highly infested Hlathikulu valley in Monk’s Cowl and the infested Thuthumi valley and Ogalwani valley (upstream of the Trout Hatchery) in Cathedral Peak. Such infestations, typically containing thousands of trees, require multiple busts to clear or simply contain, and areas previously worked often require follow-up visits. A case in point is the Vaalribokkop/Eagle Gorge area above Culfargie, a focus area from 2016–2019, where some remaining trees were spotted in 2024. Other regions that continue to receive intermittent attention are Injisuthi and Garden Castle.

Observations of pines by recreational hikers are crucial in helping us to identify unknown infestations or lone trees. Please keep an eye out for pines when you’re in the Berg. If you come across any seedlings or juveniles (2–3 cm in diameter), please pull them out or, if you have a penknife or multi-tool to hand, fell them safely – and cut below the lowest branch on the trunk. Please record the GPS locations of any trees spotted. An easy option is to snap a photo (with location) and upload the photo to the iNaturalist app (www.inaturalist.org/). There are currently only 35 observations of pine in the Berg; if everyone took a picture and posted it, we would have a much better idea of spread and location.

We are always looking for new participants, whether potential core members or casual attendees. In addition to being satisfying conservation excursions, our pine busts are festive events full of great chats, laughter, and a shared love of the mountains – and often take us into areas seldom explored. Pine Busters is a great way to give back to the Berg and to contribute to the long-term goal of eradicating this invasive threat to the biodiversity and water sustainability of our cherished World Heritage Site. It is the selfless efforts of volunteers that keep this group going. If you are interested in joining Pine Busters, please get in touch with Richard Strickland at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Please follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/pinebusters/) and Instagram (@pine_busters) and spread the word.

We hope to see you on one of our busts soon!

Thanks guys for your hard work on this front.  The stats speak for themselves and was of interest that ring barking must stress the tree into survival mode or similar to procreate.  

Agreed.  The mature trees are the ones that have been targeted with ringbarking, but these have cone already developed. When a mature tree is ringbarked we cut off the phloem transport layer which principally transports carbohydrates generated from the foliage to the root system and the tree will eventually die.  The issue with a mature tree is that it has a fair bit of carbohydrate in the phloem layer above the ringbark.  This would seem to be redirected away from tree growth towards reproduction. The foliage dies but the tree is focussed on generating maximum seed loadings.  It is an evolutionary survival tactic.  P.patula release seed in dry periods so we have a triple whammy in that the foliage loss results in sunlight being able to access the area immediately under the tree, the root system dies and thus frees up moisture below the tree and the cones are dry and full of seed perched high up on the tree.  It then drops all this seed around the dying mother tree.  The result is the picture below.   
        

Don't worry - we have all done it. The thing now is to get the message out there to abstain from ringbarking mature trees in the Berg. Far better to just take a pic and load on iNaturalist app. This way we get to track the spread, can see the size and species and can then send out a crew to fell.