The Pine Tree Project

Progress of the pines in the upper Mhlwazini which can be see on the way to Keith Bush Camp. The is the hallmark of VE's pine tree work - where it all began.



In 2015 we literally still treated hundreds of saplings which had sprung up after the initial treatment in 2011.

Not sure who that was Stijn. You are referring to the cluster right in the river bed, close to the Thuthumi Pass/Valley junction? It may even have been a veld fire that did that. Did you notice any ring-barking?

In the last year or two we have noticed several of these brown pines in various places and we have been puzzled by it. In some cases it definitely was due to fire. Below is a shot of a small portion of the big cluster in the lower Tseketseke Valley, taken in 2014.



This next shot was taken in 2015. It is the exact same clump of trees, just from a different angle. Thankfully fires help the pine tree work in these cases. In some densely infested pine areas, fires can lead to soil erosion.

The other possibility is that the pines in the Berg have a biological enemy. As a point of interest, British Columbia in Canada has a really big problem with the pine beetle which has killed literally billions of trees, see image below:

I proudly present the map below which defines VE's current areas of operation. These have been adopted by the VE teams, and work will be continued on them until we reach 100% pine eradication in them. This includes ongoing follow up and monitoring. The areas have been defined according to history and practical logistics. We also found it helpful to cordon off certain areas in our minds. The extent of the invasion can sometimes feel quite overwhelming and breaking the work down into bite-sized chunks helps keep us focused, as well as giving us an important sense of satisfaction in achieving short-term goals. For example, the Upper Mhlwazini area is at roughly 95% eradication, and the Zulu Cave area is probably at 100% eradication.

The map has been a long time in the making, and I thank everyone who has been involved in this work so far.