“We could never have

loved the earth so well

if we had had no

childhood in it.”

- George Eliot

Farewell,

Welcome and

Congratulations!

Added - Atlantic

Beach

Fame, Fashion

& Flames

Get Snappy

Aqua-Eland

Mentioning

Muizenberg

Milnerton Magic

Awarding Eco-

Schools

The end at the

beginning

CLP Fun!

Welcome to 2016, it is promising to be an exhilarating year, with new projects coming to fruition and long-standing projects expanding. The new developments are all very exciting and keeping the teams quite busy. Herewith are some of the interesting activities from the past three months, please do enjoy.

CTEET Newsletter Vol. 3 January - March 2016

Farewell, Welcome and Congratulations!

After 16 years of volunteering his services to the Board not only as a trustee but as the Chairperson, Mr. Quentin Pavitt, has stepped down. Mr. Pavitt has been with CTEET since its inception and through his dedication and guidance has watched it prosper into the organization it is today. Mr. Pavitt, thank you for your passion, insight, intellect, experience and resources you brought to the table. Thank you for devoting so many years to the growth of CTEET. You have earned a much deserved break from your ever hectic schedule and we wish you all the best.

On a lighter note, Mr. Armand Bam joined the Board as a Trustee in October 2015. We wish to welcome Mr. Bam to the team and thank him for his willingness to serve as a Trustee. Mr. Bam hails from Grassy Park and is currently the Executive Director of the League of Friends of the Blind. He is currently studying towards his PhD in Business Administration and believes in urban conservation and environmental education. Mr. Bam, we are sure that your skills and experience will be an asset to the CTEET Team. A big congratulations to our very own Taryn van Neel, who received the 2016 WESSA Youth Award for the Western Cape for her outstanding work as the South Peninsula Eco-Schools Coordinator. According to the WESSA press release, “She goes beyond the call of duty, going the ex-tra mile to support and inspire learn-ers, parents and educators to ‘Go Green’ and undertake community pro-jects.” CTEET is proud of Taryn’s achievements and that she is being acknowledged for all her hard work. A warm welcome to Karen Merrett the new Senior Environmental Educator for the Environmental Education Programme.

Taryn van Neel is acknowledged for her Eco-School work.

A fond farewell to Quentin Pavitt

A warm welcome to Armand Bam

Added… Atlantic Beach

About 5km North of Big Bay, lies

the Atlantic Beach development

which is made up of a 136ha

residential estate and a 28ha golf

course with mostly linear strips of

indigenous Cape Flats Dune

Strandveld between the course and

the estate. The Atlantic Beach Golf

Course Conservation Area is

approximately 22ha with a number

of protected Milkwood clumps

found in the dunes and individual

trees scattered throughout the

estate.

The spread of alien invasive plant

species is considered a major

threat to the natural vegetation

which provides habitat for wildlife

on the estate which thus far

includes: angulate and padloper

tortoises, cape cobras, house

snakes, mole snakes, puffadders,

moles, mole rats, cape grysbok and

the occasional porcupine and

mongoose. Springbok have been

introduced to the site with a current

population size of 25 individuals.

Over 120 bird species have been

recorded from this site and

surrounding reserves.

Louis van Wyk started as the

conservation site manager in

March and immediately set out to

meet with stakeholders, develop an

annual plan of operations, load the

site onto the South African

Biodiversity Database, identify

areas of concern to the

conservation sites, and hold

interviews for two field rangers.

The two successful candidates

(Kashiefa Anthony and Pamella

Mrebe) came off of the CTEET

NQF5 Environmental Management

Learnership.

Watch this space for exciting

conservation news from this site!

A new conservation area added to CTEET Nature Care Fund Sites: the Atlantic Beach Golf Course Conservation Area

Fame, Fashion and Flames...

The J&B Met held at the end of

January was the perfect opportunity

for the Kenilworth Racecourse

Conservation Area team to create

awareness about the conservation

work they are involved in. The team

engaged with approximately 500 of

the event attendees.

Site Manager, Rob Slater took part in

a CNN interview; the piece was

about horse-racing but the

uniqueness of the conservation area

was highlighted which should bring

international exposure to this project.

Approximately 8ha of 100 year old

critically endangered Cape Flats

Sand Fynbos vegetation type was

burnt in March as part of a planned

ecological burn; necessary for the

removal of old, dead plant material

and to aid germination, looking

forward to seeing what sprouts. Visitors to the KRCA stand at the J&B Met

KRCA’s successful ecological burn

Get Snappy! The EEP is registered on

SnapScan to assist with fund-

raising efforts and for ease of

payments for camps. Whilst

any amount is appreciated, for

just R410 you can assist a

child from an underprivileged

community to enjoy a fun-filled,

worry-free educational camp at

one of our camping facilities.

The Gantouw Project has its

own dedicated SnapScan

account for quick payments

options for fundraising. The

project is in need of extra

funding to cover costs of the

dedicated staff who care for

these animals daily. Use the

QR code:

Go on, You know you want to

give it a try! Just download

SnapScan to your mobile

device to get snapping.

Milnerton Magic!

Landi Louw, the site manager for the Milnerton Racecourse Conservation Area (MRCA) has been able to add a number of new species to the Biodiversity database over the past few months.

In September, Landi uploaded

unidentified flora and fauna records

to iSpot to be checked and

confirmed. From this 7 new fauna

(African boll worm and burrowbugs)

and 11 new flora species have been

added to the database. This

includes 2 endangered plant

species - Babiana nana and

Lampranthus amoenus (not a new

species to the list but is now listed

as endangered). Bringing the plant

list up to 259 species on a 19ha site,

truly outstanding.

These plants are continuously being

threatened from the aggressive

growth of Kikuyu grass, the result of

a well-watered race-track. The

MRCA team are endeavouring to

continue the battle on the alien

grass.

Barn owls, last sighted in 1997,

have again been seen on site.

Trevor Hardaker (wildlife enthusiast)

spotted one in February whilst

looking for Cape dwarf chameleons,

of which he found 9 including a

young chameleon and a large gravid

female. Evidence that biodiversity

of indigenous species are increasing

at this site.

Mentioning Muizenberg

The Muizenberg East Cluster is made up of four conservation

areas: Soralia Village, Sunrise

Villas, Muizenberg East Private

Nature Reserve and Capricorn Business Park.

Andrea von Gunten, the site

manager since October 2015, has

noted a number of interesting

sightings. There is a new record of

the critically endangered Psoralea

glaucina, along a pathway in

Capricorn Business Park. As there

are only two known populations of

this plant in the park, it is extremely

important to protect them.

The main threats to this species is

the invasion of alien vegetation and

urban development.

A small hole under a fence between

Soralia Village and Capricorn

Business Park sparked a camera

trap project. There were concerns

that the hole was from human

activity but the camera traps tell a

different story. It recorded images

of cape grysbok, porcupine, small

spotted genet, water mongoose and

cape francolin using the gap as a

thoroughfare which highlights the

importance of corridors linking small

patches of indigenous vegetation.

Sighting of the Psoralea glaucina

Caught in the act - users of the path

Aqua-Eland Since the draw-down of the water

at Rondevlei Nature Reserve, the

Gantouw Project team have spent

a few stressful moments

wondering where the Eland are

and if they would return from their

foraging feast in the vlei. Luckily,

this well trained herd return on a

‘one word’ command from the

team and of course they are not

above accepting bribes of an-

telope pellets.

The antelope pellets are coming in

handy for the trailer training of the

eland, as they happily go into the

trailer knowing a treat awaits.

Uniqua Khan (the oldest herd

member) is a little nervous, under-

standably, as her previous trailer

experience was whilst she was

injured but she is slowly realizing

that it is safe. The other four

waste no time getting to the pellets

in the back of the trailer. They

might be reserve-hopping soon.

Vlei-foragers - Eland enjoying draw-down

Trailer-training going well

Babiana nana African boll worm

The end at the beginning The NQF level 2 (Nature

Conservation) and NQF level 5

(Environmental Management)

learnerships have both come to

an end. The 21 learners on the

NQF 2 successfully completed the

qualification. Of the 12 learners

on the NQF 5 learnership, 11 will

complete their final integrated

assessment in mid-April and we

await the positive results.

This is by no means the end but

is only the beginning. We are

currently aware that 8 learners are

to study further, 14 have attended

interviews for positions within the

City of Cape Town or associated

organizations of which 9 have

been placed. Nine other learners

have also taken up employment

opportunities.

We wish the learners luck on their

future paths knowing that our

paths will soon cross again.

Awarding Eco-Schools On the 5th of March 2016, 40

WESSA Eco-Schools from Cape

Town received their Eco-schools

Status Awards. The celebration was

held at Observatory Junior School

for the schools from Cape Town

and the Southern Cape region. Of

the 40 schools present 27 were

supported by CTEET in 2015.

Levana Primary School received

the Diamond Decade Double

Bronze Award for being an Eco-

School for over a decade.

Rocklands Primary School and

Imperial Primary School were

awarded the 2nd year Platinum

Award with Prince George Primary

School and Kannemeyer Primary

School received the 1st year

Platinum Award.

Sid G. Rule Primary School, St.

Mary’s R.C. Primary School, Floreat

Primary School, Parkhurst Primary

School and Harmony Primary

School received the International

Flag Award.

Springdale Primary School, Dune-

side Primary School, Oval North

High School and Oaklands High

School were awarded the Gold

Award.

A.Z. Berman Primary School and

Kirstenhof Primary School were

awarded the Green Flag Award.

Spineview Primary School, Lotus

Secondary School, Strandfontien

Primary School, Perivale Primary

School and Mitchell’s Plain Primary

School were awarded the Silver

Award.

Jam’Eyyatul Qurra’ Primary School,

Westlake Primary School, Sweet

Valley Primary School, Windsor

High School and Paul Greyling

Primary School received the Bronze

Award. Islamia College received a

Certificate of Participation.

Well done to all the schools in-

volved and to Taryn for her support

to the schools.

27 of the 40 schools being recognized at the WESSA Eco-Schools Awards Ceremony are supported by CTEET

CLP in action at Princess Vlei

Reconnecting with Nature - CLP Hike

CLP Fun! Such interesting interactions the

Conservation Leadership Pro-

gramme members have had this

quarter! From motivational chanting

during the Plattekloof Gorge Hike,

poster-making and painting ballards

at Princess Vlei, experiencing the

Table Mountain Cableway for the

first time, life saving tips for different

drowning scenarios at Blue Flag

Beach Lifesaving Programme at Mil-

lers Point; to hiking in the clouds at

Constantia Nek Hiking Trail. The

ultimate interaction was whilst hiking

to the Streenbras Crystal Pool when

one of the CLP children, Calton, was

confronted by a baboon who

snatched and ran off Calton’s towel

(it was later retrieved).

An adaptation of a Dr. Suess quote,

“Oh the places we will go” is a fitting

mantra for the CLP.