Nature’s Valley Trust – April 2019 Newsletter
April Highlights
Dear NVT Supporters
The NVT team had a busy April; hosting camps along with continuing the usual research and education programmes. We hope you enjoy reading about everything we got up to in April.
Moment of the Month
Our moment of the month was successfully helping out a furry friend of the valley who had a plastic problem. With the much-appreciated help of Dr Brendan Tindall from Robberg Vet Clinic, and Marco Barnardo. We are happy to report that the little bushbuck is doing well!
Conservation in Action
This month, we ringed three Spotted Eagle-owls at Radical Raptors, which are currently being slow-released back into the wild after various injuries.
A sad story, but an important one to get out there, came from Robberg Veterinary Clinic who received a Kelp Gull in trouble. As a result of swallowing a hook, this poor bird did not make it. This illustrates how important it is to try and keep our beaches clean.
With turtle season arriving along our coast and the recent rough seas, NVT assisted in organising a workshop on what to in case of young turtles strandings on our beaches. Please be on the lookout for these little cuties and take the necessary steps to help them out. Below is an infographic for more information on the best practice.
We have had a bad run with baboons in the valley for the last few months. There have been several heated and some not so heated discussions about what can, should or should not be done about them. Please remember NVT has no authority over the issue, we merely try to engage with the correct authorities on behalf of the Valley and try to equip homeowners with as much info as possible on the latter. Mark wrote an open letter which was distributed on the baboon WhatsApp group recently, and it gives a useful summary of the situation. Please download and read the letter here. If you are in the Valley, please ask the NVT team to add you to the Baboon WhatsApp group, which enables valley residents and visitors to let each other know where baboons are when they are sighted.
We met with Bitou’s new Environmental Officer, and are exploring new options for assistance from Bitou, along with some other out the box ideas – watch this space! Working closely with the NVRA, we are doing our best to assist. We also recently met with Ivan Hope from Clear Cut Security, a company doing some really good innovative installations that homeowners now have available in the region. Contact Ivan on ivan.hope13@gmail.com. These are the best products we have seen locally that will help!
Ecological Research
The research team was kept busy with our quarterly seine-netting in the Groot River Estuary, with the team netting over 27 000 (yes, that number is correct) fish across the 6 designated sites along the estuary. Majority of the catch was made up of the very small Estuarine Round herring but we also had a very healthy hall of Cape Stumpnose and White Steenbras in huge numbers. Thankfully we had a few extra pair of hands from a visiting group of students, of the Wildlands Studies programme, from the USA.
The Marine team had an exciting month with the tagging of Bryde’s whales. This is the second round of tagging to attain important information about these shy whales. As part of the sustainable boat-based whale and dolphin watching project, the team took Fluke to the waters to collect boat-based data for the project.
Breeding season for our shorebirds officially ended in April. The season ended on a happy note for Nature’s Valley plovers, but the plovers of Lookout beach struggled. We are holding thumbs that things will look up for the next season. Click here to check out a little video of the chicks and their parents for 2018/2019 on nature’s Valley.
The fynbos is starting to come into full bloom with winter on the way and a lovely selection of plants are beginning to show off their spectacular flowers.
We caught some beautiful birds, including three of our four Fynbos endemics, in this month’s bird ringing. April marked the 6th year since the establishment of this project; it is still in full flight collecting insightful data along the way.
Our species showcased for April included a hidden beauty of the fynbos, the blue grass lily and a unique feathered friend, the African Hoopoe.
Conservation Education
The conservation education team are going strong with the outdoor classrooms in full swing. It is always exciting to see how keen the learners are to learn more about the environment in a fun way.
The Birding Masters and Champions programme kicked off this month with Formosa Primary heading off in search of birds with their birding masters Bob, Steve and Anne from the local bird club, Birdlife Plettenberg Bay.
Thanks to Ocean Blue Adventures sponsoring our adopt-a-beach programme once again this year, we were able to take our grade 7 learners to the beach to learn more about this amazing and important ecosystem. The programme consists of 7 lessons with each lesson touching on an aspect of our beaches, for example, the rocky shores, birds and animals and the tides.
NVT hosted a group of America students for a week who was busy with a 6-week course through Wildlands Studies. This course counts as credits towards their degrees while also exposing them to field techniques used for research in the conservation sector. We ran a programme for the students giving them a chance to get hands-on experience with a range of our research and education projects.
Collegiate Girls High, visited us again this year as part of their Garden Route Geology tour. Kirwan and the team did some night-time kayaking, a geology walk to Pigs Head and some other fun activities with the group!
Community Engagement
As part of a community-based project in Covie, NVT helped assist PAWS and the Robberg Veterinary Clinic with a spay day. This is one of the 2019 TMF Small Grant projects we funded this year!
NVT hosted 3 walks (a beach clean-up, fynbos walk and community walk) for the Garden Route Walking Festival during the Easter weekend. This is a cool initiative to get people out and about to explore what the Garden Route has to offer while raising funds for local NPO’s.
Interns and Volunteers
The team welcomed our new WWF-SA Graduate intern, Lauren Moriarty, to the family. Lauren will be with us for the next year for her internship with us and will be splitting her time between both our research and education programmes.
Assist the Team!
Please consider helping us in the following areas if you can:
- Accommodation, for a few team members, is needed for December – if you are looking to rent your house, or outside the room, please consider NVT!
We need donors to assist in reaching our fund-raising targets for the year. If you are not one of our AMAZING existing donors, please consider a once off, or monthly debit-order donation. Even small amounts help us keep our programs running. We are Section 18A Tax registered, so can give donation certificates for your next SARS returns. We also carry a BBBEE certification, so if your company is needing BEE points or a BEE partner, please consider NVT.
Raffle time!
We have another amazing prize up for grabs. Enter our raffle for only R100 to win a two-night stay at the Forest Edge, Nature-lover’s Retreat, situated on the edge of the Knysna forest. It is private, tranquil and very cosy with the option for various forest or beach adventures close by. This two-night stay is worth R3000.00. Please contact us by email (info@naturesvalleytrust.co.za) or phone (044 531 6820) to find out more or lock down your entry.
Amazing Artwork!
We have several local artists who donate a percentage of their art to NVT’s conservation work. Please check out https://www.facebook.com/artfortheearthSA/ to see Jane Pitchford’s amazing work and https://www.facebook.com/HalszkaCovarrFineArtandPhotography/ to peruse Halszka Covarr’s incredible artwork. These passionate local artists do world-class work, and support our cause – please consider supporting them.
Thank you
A big warm thank you from the team for all your much valued and appreciated support.
Kind regards,
The NVT team