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FOTP Newsletter
With the next stage of the Tokai-Cecilia Management Framework Review Process kicking off today at 10am, October is looking to be an eventful month. Some highlights of this month for FOTP include our Spring Walk which already has 30 sign-ups, our next Night Walk, our Spring Surveys and the Great Southern Bioblitz! Please scroll for info on how to sign-up. We look forward to seeing you there, and out hacking with us on the mountain :)
What is in this newsletter?
1) Sign-up opportunities: Sign up for our Spring Walk 2021, our next Night Walk and our Spring Surveys!
2) News: Updates on the TCMF process, the Great Southern Bioblitz, our latest blog post and an article by Jeremy Gilmore on a restoration project using Psoralea fascicularis.
3) Events: Please scroll down and diarize our events for the rest of 2021!
4) Donate: We are running some amazing programmes, please do support us.
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FOTP Annual Spring Walk 2021
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With over 550 native plant species, Tokai Park is one of the richest places for seeing botanical wonders within the City of Cape Town, and arguably in the world. Join our experts, including Dr Tony Rebelo and Prof Patricia Holmes, as they give a guided botanical tour of the lowland fynbos at Tokai Park, with a focus on the spring flowering beauties. These are mainly lowland fynbos species that have emerged following the removal of pine plantations, surviving in seedbanks under the ground for decades.
Date: Saturday 9 October
Time: 2:30-4pm
Sign up here: https://forms.gle/BbqtJRPmG79WbdBC9
Please note that numbers are limited. |
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FOTP Night Walk - October 2021
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Tokai Park has a thriving faunal community, and when best to explore it than at night? This will be a Lower Tokai Park night walk. Some of the fauna seen on previous night walks at Tokai Park included pygmy mice, chameleons, scorpions ( Parabuthus capensis, Uroplectes lineatus, and Opistophthalmus capensis), snakes (mole snakes and slug eaters), frogs and toads, spiders and insects galore, and the occasional bat. Leader: Vard Aman
Date: Friday 22 October 2020
Time: 7pm
Location: Canal Carpark on Orpen Rd
Sign up here: https://forms.gle/jRJ6m63Tv7Z9DZpi7
Bring: Torch (UV if you have), closed shoes, & a jacket
Please note that numbers are limited. |
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Update: Restoration Trail Campaign!
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Thank you so much to all our volunteers who have donated time, and also money, towards the refreshing of the Restoration Trail at Tokai Park! We have met with SANParks who have undertaken to redo the wooden boardwalk. You may see it cordoned off soon, until the refurbishment takes place. A few weeks ago volunteers went to clean the signage and check for damage. One of the signs have been identified to be needing replacement and we will do this using some of the donations you have made. Thank you to all involved!
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The Friends of Tokai Park (FOTP) are being represented on the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) Forum by Dr Alanna Rebelo. This forum has three sub-committees, and FOTP sits on the "Maintenance & Permits" subcommittee. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any issues you want raised there.
The process has been much contested, with Take Back Our Mountain (TBOM) boycotting the process and FOTP have also had serious complaints about the process which to date have been ignored. There is a lot of internal conflict and unless resolved, legitimacy will be hard to establish. We will continue to monitor this process and keep you updated.
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News: Update on the TCMF Process
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The Tokai Ceclilia Management Framework (TCMF) Review Process has reached Phase 2 (focused workshops). The first focused workshop scheduled for today, Saturday 02 October 2021, at 10am, as an in-person event. This workshop will explain the next steps for workstream meetings and take a decision on a follow-up virtual intervention for those stakeholders who could not attend the workshop in person.
Phase 2 is also called: " What It Looks Like When It’s Fixed". SANParks says: " This phase is informed by knowledge gathered in the first phase. The process will consist of in-person and virtual workshops and task team meetings. The first phase has taught us that there is a shared will to do the best for these extraordinarily environmentally diverse and valued areas, for the people who love and use them and for the global heritage and legacy of our beloved mountain."
You can download a copy of the Friends of Tokai Park's statement here and read a summary of our vision below. |
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Planning a Park for All – Together
Biodiversity • Community • Heritage • Safety
The Friends of Tokai Park have a vision for Tokai Park where humans and nature can live in harmony.
"The restoration and conservation of biodiversity is inclusive, not exclusive, and is entirely compatible with our heritage and recreational activities"
Our goal is to conserve our natural plant and animal life at Tokai Park while promoting the park as a recreational gateway to our greatest natural asset and internationally-renowned World Heritage Site, Table Mountain National Park.
We envisage a park reflecting the symbiotic relationship between the plants and animals that call Tokai Park home and members of the diverse community that use it for many and varied types of recreation, including walking, running, cycling, dog-walking and/or horse riding.
To have a closer look at our vision mapped out (below) and to learn more about our vision, click here: https://tokaipark.com/about-us/vision/.
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News: The Great Southern Bioblitz
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The City of Cape Town is the Biodiversity Capital and Mother City, situated in the Littlest Plant Kingdom in all the world. We are participating in the second Great Southern BioBlitz 2020 that runs from 22-25 October 2021, together with cities from across the Southern Hemisphere!
The umbrella project is here: and the project website is here. See our southern African participation here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella. See what we did last year here.
Free training events/opportunities:
6 Oct @7pm - Using the ID curation tool, sign up here
13 Oct @7pm - CREW programme specific session, sign up here
20 Oct @7pm - Contributing to Habitats, VegMap, Invasive Alien Species, RedList projects, sign up here |
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News: Psoralea Restoration
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Psoralea fascicularis: A Restoration Project by Jeremy Gilmore (2021)
For his Grade 12 Project (2021) at the Constantia Waldorf School in Cape Town (South Arica), Jeremy Gilmore completed a restoration project on the Endangered Psoralea fascicularis (aka the Large-stipule Fountainbush). The write-up documents his process and findings throughout the project. He also made a video which can be find here (starts at 17:40 minutes).
Article by Jeremy Gilmore. Read the full story here.
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Events: FOTP Alien Plant Hacks
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Please note our Covid-19 Regulations will apply (see box below).
Tuesday Hacks
5 October: 3-5pm
19 October: 3-5pm
2 November: 4-6pm (Note: change to summer time)
16 November: 4-6pm
30 November: 4-6pm
Saturday Hacks
9 October: 9-11am
13 November: 8-10am (Note: change to summer time)
Spring Surveys
Call for volunteers: Tokai’s annual veg survey is nearing, here are our plans. Surveys will happen weekly for 6 weeks (one site per week), and we need between 5-10 volunteers for each week. Volunteers can complete the doodle calendar (click here) to reserve their spot, or email s.govender@sanbi.org.za.
Surveys Dates: October: 7, 20, 29; Nov: 4, 11, 17
Time: 9am-12pm
Meeting location: Tokai Picnic Site parking area
Bring: Camera and GPS or smartphone with iNaturalist loaded and sufficient battery and memory, sturdy boots, long pants, and appropriate gear for the weather, water/tea and snacks.
Procedure: We will drive to the start, and proceed from level 1 up through the veld in a group about 20-50m apart to level 5 (300m altitude), meet at the top for tea, and repeat the process down in a new transect to level 1 and the cars. At each level we will start again to record all plants and animals we encounter.
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FOTP Covid19 Regulations
- Please do not attend our hacks if you are feeling unwell, or have any of the recognized Covid19 symptoms, are medically compromised with regards to the virus, or have been in contact with an infected person in the past 14 days.
- Please take your temperature yourself before coming on the hack, and only attend if your temperature is normal.
- Face masks must be worn at all times.
- Social distancing of 2m must be maintained at all times.
- Wash hands and all tools before coming. Any tools shared on site must be wiped down with wet disinfected cloth before handed back to owner.
- Bring your own refreshments and do not share.
- Teams no larger than 10 participants. For more than 10 participants we will divide into different teams working in different Blocks.
- On arrival, everyone will be screened for any obvious symptoms, and a register of all participants and their e-mail contacts will be kept.
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FOTP and partners doing active restoration at Tokai Park on a rainy day in July (Photo: Zoe Poulsen)
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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 50% 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 -> Target achieved!
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 -> Target achieved!
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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Use the buttons below to find our website or follow us on social media :)
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