The Pine Tree Project

These must be remnants from the old plantation lower down near the Injisuthi Camp. It is definitely a good idea to tackle these whilst they are young. Most of the other old pine in the area has been destroyed.

Here is a link to a video a shot of one of the pines falling. Date 11 June 2016




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I'm not sure who has been working on the pine trees on the route up to Keith Bush Camp, but their efforts are paying off.
This is the pine between the river & path on the final trek up to KBC:

It is pale & yellowish, and the tree was visibly wilting in the noonday heat.

Hi Andrew,

It is the VE Pine Tree group, and that particular tree was ringbarked by Smurfatefrog, Mark Robertson (OIC Monks Cowl) and myself on 28 June 2015, as part of a VE trip.

Glad to see it is dying, but it is taking a while, probably due to the ideal conditions being so close to water in the river below.

Thanks Tony, great work.
The bigger one higher up on the other side of the river is also looking sick and the ring-barking is clearly visible (i.e. hasn't grown over again).

Hi guys and girls,
Our group is doing our last pine hike of the year from the 9th to 11 December.
We have had a couple of cancellations, so have some spots available.
If you would like to join for a fun working weekend (yes we can have fun and work on the same hike!!) let me know.
Work is entirely at your own pace and discretion, no pressure.
Monks Cowl area, from Friday morning at about 8ish or earlier, walk out Sunday morning.

One day I will be free for one of these...one day

Five VE members, JulieMK, saros, SingleSpeed, Smurfatefrog and Papa Dragon reported for duty for our last Pine working hike of the year.
The weather forecast was for a clear,warm day on Friday, with rain in the afternoon. We started from Bergview Estate on Friday 9th December, headed towards Makhulumane Gorge, at about 10:30, an hour after we had hoped.

FLTR SingleSpeed, Papa Dragon, saros, Smurfatefrog and JulieMK


It was quite hot, and the shade of the forest in the gorge was welcome, even though it was pretty warm and humid.


We were rewarded with our first trees of the hike above the forest, 3 pole sized on the grass slopes heading up toward the Little Berg..


Once we reached the top, we saw what we thought was a single pine up in a valley to the north. SingleSpeed and I went to dispatch it, but it turns out it is a fairly sizeable cluster, so we recorded it for future work. We did get one double trunker and a young tree near that though.


We then headed off to Eagle Cave for an early night..

Next morning we were up bright and early, but saros was not feeling great, so he decided to stick around the cave as camp guard.
The remaining 4 of us started off for work at 06:30, and headed toward a cluster that we had seen the afternoon before..
SingleSpeed is an ecologist, with a special interest of forestation in the Berg. it was awesome to have him along, adding a whole new dimension to our usual labour of just felling, ringbarking, and pulling out trees. We are very happy that he has indicated that he wants to join us on future trips.

I had noticed another cluster high on the slopes above the first one, after we had completed the first cluster we slogged up to tackle this one. Single in the meantime, climbed up the far bank to fell a lone pine that he had seen standing right in the middle of indigenous forest. He soon joined us, and we were at work again.. We had a very successful trip with approximately 46 adult trees, and 50 to 60 young ones, being treated.

The weather forecast for Saturday had been rain from about 11, but we were very fortunate that the rain held off until after we got back to the cave at about 15:45. Sunday morning weather for the walk-ot was not too bad, until we got to Hlathikulu Nek, were it started with mist, then drizzle, then rain. We were quite wet by the time we got back to the cars..

I was encouraged after the weekend, knowing that what we are doing is making some inroad to the pine problem, but also deeply aware that more needs to be done.. if anyone feels so inclined, please get involved with this work, by joining one of the groups, or better still form new groups.

Thanks to the team for a great weekend, fun as always, but also very productive..

SingleSpeed counting rings and measuring..


A large tree, ringbarked.


Julie, showing her handiwork.


Smurf, tossing the caber..