Cape Town - Illegal quad bikers are creating havoc in the False Bay Nature Reserve, damaging protected vegetation and scaring birds in what is designated an Important Birds Area.
Now Cape Town is appealing to birdwatchers and nature-lovers who visit the reserve to help them apprehend the riders, who appear to enter from the residential area of Pelican Park.
The nature reserve consists of six sections: Rondevlei, Zeekoevlei, Strandfontein (waste water treatment works), Pelican Park (undeveloped parts), Slangetjiebos and the Zandwolf coastal section, and is also part of the greater False Bay Ecology Park.
Last week, city councillors gave the nod to an application being submitted, via the national Department of Environmental Affairs, for parts of the ecology park to be declared a protected Ramsar Site, under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat, known as the Ramsar Convention.
The maturation ponds of the Cape Flats (Strandfontein) wastewater treatment works, or sewerage works, are a vital element of the nature reserve and the ecology park, providing a rich, semi-natural habitat for many bird species – especially wading birds.
It is a popular area for birders, one of whom is Peter Braat, who posted a message on the birding social network, capebirdnet, earlier this week.
”While we were watching the Spotted Eagle Owl in its regular spot (at Strandfontein sewerage works), the peace – and the owl! – were rudely disturbed by a gang of six quad bikers.” They came from the south-east corner and left across the dunes, he wrote.
“From the tracks and erosion it appears this dune crossing is in fairly heavy usage for them.”
Gavin Lawson, who serves on the steering committee of the False Bay Ecology Park and the Cape Bird Club’s conservation committee, said quad riders were “a real problem”.
“They set back the (alien invasive water) hyacinth clearing programme by more than a year by driving through the electric fence which kept the hippo out of the pan which they had just started to clear.
“They’ve also created problems on the dunes and made tracks into areas previously unaffected by human beings, having a ‘jol’. The problem is they are persistent and unrelenting.”
Erica Essig, biodiversity manager and site co-ordinator of the Strandfontein Birding Area, replied promptly to Braat, pointing out that quad riding was prohibited.
“We are really trying our best to keep these guys out of the reserve,” she posted.” At the moment it feels a bit like the war of wills, as whatever and whichever measure I use to prevent further trespassing is basically causing the bikers to just ‘go around’ and generally drive over indigenous vegetation in the process, and cause even more destruction.”
Essig appealed to all birders using the area to report any quad bikers or motorbikers they saw in the reserve and to photograph them.
l She can be e-mailed at [email protected], and the standby phone at the reserve is 083 499 1717. - Cape Argus