Day: November 8, 2016

Parkscape proves that Tokai Park should be restored to Cape Flats Sand Fynbos after plantation harvesting

Fynbos rambles

The attached screenshot is courtesy of Parkscape.
Thanks to those who posted it.
Your contribution is greatly appreciated.

This is a response to a post by Parkscape on 30 September in which they quote a section (section 3.3) from the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, Norms and Standards for Biodiversity Management Plans for Ecosystems.

“wrt to Biodiversity Management Plans for Ecosystems (2014). Note the minimum targets and the comment as to what constitutes a degraded system. ‘Natural habitat in a terrestrial ecosystem is considered irreversibly lost if it has been replaced with, for example… forestry plantations…'”

Despite being really hopeful that Parkscape is slowly getting to a point where they understand the need to restore this tract of Critically Endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, I suppose I have to assume that Parkscape is attempting to use this information to prove that the Tokai Park should not be restored. In fact – it quite…

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Hundreds of Millions of Birds Have Gone Missing

strange behaviors

All the earth & sky no longer loud with skylark's voice. (Photo: Arterra/UIG via Getty Images) All the earth & sky no longer loud with skylark’s voice. (Photo: Arterra/UIG via Getty Images)

by Richard Conniff/Takepart.com

You might think that what happened to the passenger pigeon couldn’t happen today. We know better than to allow a species with a population in the billions to dwindle away to nothing over the course of a few decades, don’t we?

Sadly, no. In fact, it’s not just one species this time. It’s an entire world of migratory songbirds—turtledoves, skylarks, cerulean warblers, wood thrushes, yellow-breasted buntings, and many more—on flyways touching every continent.

The sort of industrial-scale hunting that wiped out the passenger pigeons a century ago is once again part of the story: For instance, a study early this year estimated that hunters and trappers, mostly in the eastern Mediterranean, are illegally taking 11 million to 36 million birds each year for food, the pet trade, and sport…

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Pyracantha Stump Project 2016 Update

Robert Nocher Shohin Bonsai

Today, I cut back this year’s growth on my Pyracantha. After 3 seasons in this pot, it is beginning to look less like a stump and a little more like a bonsai. When it was planted in the pot at the start of 2014, it didn’t have many roots, so next Spring I will remove it to see how the roots are developing. It still has a long way to go but it is beginning to make a pleasing image. The start of this project can be found by clicking the link to this earlier post.

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This is how it looked in the Spring of 2015

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and this is how it looked in the Spring of 2014 just after it was carved and re-potted

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Early 2014, prior to carving and re-potting

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