We hope that all our members are keeping safe and warm as we ease into the second half of 2021 and the last month of winter! Based on our president's address last weekend, with the country back on adjusted alert level 3, our socially-distanced hacks are back! Particularly exciting: keep an eye out for our notification for our next restoration event planned for August. Our Mandela Day 2021 restoration event was the highlight of July, where we planted 800 indigenous seedlings with our volunteers!

Some more exciting news is that Matthew Collins has been appointed as the new FoTP intern to work on our living map project. Welcome Matthew and thank you to WESSA for funding! We are also really delighted to launch our Restoration Trail campaign. Lastly, we would like to share an interesting paper on the use of iNaturalist citizen science data for public land management in the USA (download free here). A reminder that we use iNaturalist at Tokai Park, and have collected thousands of observations from over 580 people (use this link). Please scroll to read more details about our news and events in our August newsletter! 

Last week in honour of Mandela Day 2021 the Friends of Tokai Park hosted a socially distanced restoration planting in the Prinskasteel wetland area, Lower Tokai fynbos and the restoration trail. A total of 800 plants were planted by volunteers ❤ Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers!

Plants reintroduced to the site include the King Protea (Protea cynaroides), Marsh Pagoda (Mimetes hirtus) (vulnerable) and Flats Silkypuff (Diastella proteoides) (critically endangered). Please see the full story here. 

The Tokai Park Restoration Trail is the perfect introduction for people who would like to understand ecological processes in fynbos in general or learn more about Cape Flats Sand Fynbos in particular. However, this trail is now in need of some TLC. The signage needs to be updated, and more seriously, the walkways need maintenance as they have become dangerous. 

We are really delighted by the interest we have on this project lately from members, with someone volunteering their time and expertise to assist with trail maintenance, and other members making very generous donations. We would therefore like to keep this momentum going, and would like to invite all of you join in. We are busy investigating which materials are the most sustainable to use, but hope to begin work on this project as soon as we reach our funding target (see the last post in this newsletter for details). Do you have experience with trail maintenance or signage? Can you volunteer some time? Or do you have materials you could donate? Or are you interested in pitching in by way of donation? All kinds of help are welcome! 

Following on from SANParks Honorary Rangers' “Planks of Thanks” project at Lower Tokai Park, we are encouraging donations at R50 for a plank installed by hand and laid with love. 

The Friends of Tokai Park have received a WESSA Small Grant to update our living map of invasive alien trees at Tokai Park, and explore the use of change detection analysis to see whether this process can be automated going forward. This is to be done through creating a capacity building opportunity for an intern. We had almost 40 excellent applications and we are very pleased to announce that Matthew Collins has been appointed as the new FOTP intern. He will be working on this project for most of August 2021. 

Project Description
The aim of this project is to update a living map of invasive alien trees at Tokai Park using innovative remote sensing techniques to monitor recovery of native fynbos. Invasive alien plants, especially trees, remain the biggest threat to biodiversity at Tokai Park. Friends of Tokai Park’s main events include alien hacking, and lower Tokai Park (mainly Cape Flats Sand Fynbos) is kept largely alien free. However upper Tokai Park’s Peninsula Granite Fynbos is being overrun by alien trees. In the last year, Working for Water teams have been clearing the area. We will update our previous classifications and explore change detection analysis to generate these maps, which are hosted on our website at this address: https://tokaipark.com/tokai-park/adopt-a-plot/. This tool will assist with monitoring native vegetation recovery as well as with identifying priority areas for follow-up alien clearing in the future. 

Our sincere thanks to WESSA for this opportunity!

Would you like to get involved in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration? Are you not able to volunteer time to join in our hacks, but really appreciate the work we are doing? If yes, please consider making a donation to one of our five programmes. We have almost reached 10% of our target!

Programme 1: Alien Hacking - We need equipment for our volunteers to use, such as loppers, chainsaw blades, fuel etc. Target: R3000 -> Raised R250
Programme 2: Active Restoration - We need special funding for alien clearing work in Block A9 (Prinskasteel) and A7 (Paintball), as well as growing plants for active rehabilitation. Target: R10 000  -> Raised R1250
Programme 3: Restoration Trail - The restoration trail is in need of a make-over. We need funding for signage refreshment, as well as to fix the boardwalk. Target: R5000 -> Raised R1000
Programme 4: Tokai Arboretum - We need funding for maintenance of paths, buildings, and the gardens. Target: R10 000 
Programme 5: Tokai Path Maintenance - We need funding to support path clearing as well as signage, which has become totally faded. Target: R5000 

If you would like to make a donation, please feel free to use snapscan (below) our do a traditional EFT into our bank account. Please indicate which programme you would like to support by putting the programme number into the payment reference, as well as your name if you would like us to know who the donation is from (e.g. Smith_Prog1). 

BANK DETAILS
Friends of Tokai Park
Standard Bank
Blue Route
Savings Account
27 629 2669

WESSA Affiliation: MB1240127
PBO Tax Exemption #: 930066728

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