In This Issue:

World Cleanup

Day

Spring Species

Rooting for Arbor

Month

Rocking the

Cederberg

EE Stats

Workshopping

Teachers

Graduation

Celebrations

Growing

Conservators

Restoring

Fynbos

Ready for

Rangers

Eland Onboard

Blaauwberg’s

Green Coast

“At the cleanup we learnt how little things like plastic straws can

hurt our marine animals.” - Mario, aged 16

Newsletter Vol. 13 | July - Sept 2018

THE QUARTERLY BUZZ

World Cleanup Day

On Saturday 15 September an esti-mated 17.2 million people from 156 Countries attended clean-ups and events to celebrate World Cleanup day and work towards a cleaner plan-et for all. There was a great turnout at Sunrise Circle in Muizenberg, where about 200 people hit the beach to take action for Cape Town’s nature. CTEET and WESSA hosted this event, with support from PlasticsSA and Let’s Do It South Africa. It was wonderful to see the high turnout of learners from the schools that we regularly work with. It is so inspiring to see the enthusiasm exhibited by these young environmental champi-ons and work with them on action days such as these. Throughout the year they learn about the importance of caring for the environment and the value of our biodiversity, and today they were able to actively play a role in environmental protection. In total, an estimated 2km stretch of beach at Sunrise Circle was cleaned, with groups heading off in both direc-tions some to Strandfontein and others to Surfers Corner. Cigarette butts were the most found item of waste, followed closely by plastic straws and bottle tops.

Spring Species With Spring upon us, a number of new flora and fauna species are being found and monitored across our

Nature Care Fund conservation sites. The algae, Cape water net, was found in the tem-porary wetlands at Milnerton Race-course and is a new species for the site. The team at the Muizenberg East Biodiversity Cluster had a busy time monitoring the movement of the Western leopard toads as they came out in full force during their breeding season. A Cape Clawless Otter was spotted at the Atlantic Beach Golf Course

Conservation Area - always an exciting sighting. Moraea speciosa was found by Site Manager Reward Nzuza at Zoarvlei Section, Table Bay Nature Reserve. This species is a very inter-esting find for the site and its growing plant list.

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From top: Cape water net algae; a Western leopard toad; Moraea speciosa.

EE Stats this Quarter Day Programmes: 33

Overnight Camps: 23

Number of Children Involved: 2910

Rooting for Arbor Month This September, CTEET celebrated Arbor month by planting and raising awareness about the value of trees. CTEET visited eight primary schools and two high schools in Cape Town. The outreach programme comprised of a mixture of classroom activities, presentations, tasks and of course planting. The primary schools were introduced to importance of trees through a fun story telling session, followed by the chance to write their Arbor pledges for their poster, an important step in invoking conservation thinking and accountabil-ity in their young minds. The high schools were reminded about the importance of trees with an interactive discussion and presentation. Planting trees in their school grounds was the highlight of the day! Taking action in this way creates a personal relationship between the learners and their trees, recon-necting them with nature and fostering a deep appreciation for the trees. This was strengthened by the learners by naming their tress with names such as Koos, Genesis and Bart Simpson! Arbor Month was so successfully celebrat-ed thanks to support from Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and of course the schools involved. We look forward to sitting in the shade of Koos, Genesis and Bart!

Rocking the Cederberg Great experiences in nature, fascinating de-tails about plants, animals and heritage and most importantly lots of fun – all waiting for our Conservation Leadership Programme learners when they left Cape Town for the Cederberg Mountains!

First stop was the famous heritage site where children had the chance to view ancient rock art and gain some insight into the culture of the Khoi and the San people. The highlight was exploring a huge cave, the Stadsaal, where South Africa’s former leaders used to hold their private discus-sions until the late 1940’s. An early morning start kicked off the hike to Mountain’s Cross, an extraordinarily shaped sandstone formation on top of the mountain. The CLPs mastered the challenge through lots of fun and great teamwork – and what a view they got as a reward! One highlight was the swim in the beautiful clear water running down from the mountain, embed-ded in typical Cedeberg rock formations, and the murmuring of a waterfall. The ice-cold water didn’t hold them back! The group extends a massive thank you to the Cape Leopard Trust for this wonderful opportunity to experience the Cederberg!

Learners from Observatory Junior, Cape Town High and Levana Primary Schools.

Conservation Leadership Programme learners exploring the Cederberg.

Workshopping Teachers

CTEET hosted the second Eco-Schools Teacher Training Workshop for 2018 in July. The work-shop was hosted at Mondeor Eco-School, a CTEET supported Eco-School in the Helderberg Cluster. The day was well attended, with over 30 teachers and interested partners taking part in the workshop. The morning began with a quick catch-up session around the schools’ portfolios, to iron out any issues and address any challenges the schools may be facing. Ceinwen from the Ingcungcu: Sunbird Restoration Project (one of the projects currently funded by the CTEET and TMF Small Grants Facility) gave an inspirational presentation on various ways in which the schools could utilize indigenous gardens as part of their lessons. Teachers brainstormed lessons inspired by the Eco-Schools theme Nature and Biodiversity, as well as the indigenous gardens. Teachers are strongly encouraged to design outdoor lessons to foster the reconnec-tion with nature. Where better to learn about the garden than in the garden itself?

Graduation Celebrations Three groups from our Training and Development Programme were celebrated in July, at our Graduation ceremony at Camps Bay High School. Thirteen Environmental Practices (NQF 4) and six Nature Conservation (NQF 2) Learnership as well as seven Nature Guiding Skills Programme participants successfully completed their qualifica-tions. The Graduation was a wonderful occasion to cele-brate the successes of the learners, as well as to thank the mentors, partners and donors who make these programmes possible. Representa-tives from CATHSSETA, the City of Cape Town and the Elgin Community College all attended the event.

Brainstorming with Teachers and CTEET.

Graduates, partners, managers and mentors

Growing Conservators We welcomed a new group of 25 Nature Conservation learners onto a learnership in July. They will be based at a number of CTEET Nature Care Fund projects and City of Cape Town nature reserves over the course of the 12 month programme. In addition to the on-the-ground conservation work, they will also be completing a number of modules required for this accredited qualification. The learners spent 2 weeks in Betty’s Bay with Contour Training Academy where they were introduced to theo-retical and practical aspects of nature conservation. Highlights were visiting the Stony Point penguin colony, and exploring the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens.

The learners at Stony Point Penguin Colony.

We also welcome a new group of ten Interns and Work-Integrated-Learning students to the team!

Restoring Fynbos The team at the Milnerton Race-course Section of Table Bay Nature Reserve have been restoring a piece of land that has been incor-porated into the reserve. This ar-ea was burnt in April, and over 1860 propagated fynbos plants have now been planted as part of the restoration. The site is being monitored by Masters student Landi Louw (former reserve Manager). Staff and students from various other nature reserves, including Blaauwberg and False Bay, assisted in the planting activity. Three bird perches were placed in the Restora-tion Area to encourage raptors. The presence of raptors helps to prevent other birds such as Guinea fowl from digging out the young plants.

Eland Onboard The routine trailer train-ing is an important part of the project opera-tions at the Gantouw Project. The next phase of the project plans to mimic the natural migration of the eland that were historically in the area, by moving the eland to a new site. In being trailer trained, the eland will voluntarily walk on and off the trailer (passive capture and release) when they relocate to a new site. This is expected to be less stressful, with a lower risk of injury to the eland, compared to conventional capture methods. The first training started early 2016 when the eland were between 7 and 9 months old. Within a few days they were walking into a large game trailer, and standing still while gates were closed behind them. Even a short drive in the trailer with eland Mike went exception-ally well, with him showing no visible signs of stress or discomfort. In 2018 the project donor built a custom compart-mentalized game trailer. This new design will take some getting used to for the eland, but already Mike, Berni and Little P are ready for the next phase of this project and their “migration’.

Find these stories & more on: ChangingLivesThroughNature

Ready for Rangers The Kedestes Conservation team have begun their butterfly surveys to check for the emergence of the critically endangered Barber’s Ranger. The first adult butterfly was spotted on 10 September, further good news is that despite the severe effects of the drought on the vegetation, this butterfly has not yet gone extinct, with up to 50 adults being counted during one of the surveys. A significant amount of habitat restoration is being carried out to ensure that the butterflies have the correct grass to survive on. In the begin-ning of October, it is planned to move eggs to the new site in the attempt to create a second popu-lation of the butterflies. Keep an eye out for further updates on this excit-ing project, as the team works to save a species from extinction!

Training with the Gantouw Project staff and eland.

Some of the plants ready o go into the restoration site.

Barber’s Ranger (credit: C Dorse) and butterfly surveys on site.

Blaauwberg’s Green Coast Congratulations to Blaauwberg Nature Reserve and the team at the Atlantic Beach Golf Course Conser-vation Area for being awarded the Green Coast Award - the first in South Africa! The WESSA Green Coast award aims to actively promote sensitive beaches along the South African coastline.