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Map of the Thicket-Wide Plots
Map of the Thicket-Wide Plots
What is the Thicket Wide Plot Experiment?
What is the Thicket Wide Plot Experiment?
The thicket wide plots are designed to evaluate the potential of restoring spekboom-rich thicket on a regional scale. It consists of over three-hundred 50×50 m plots across the Eastern and Western Cape provinces, and was established in 2005 under the direction of the Subtropical Thicket Restoration Programme. The planting took place between January 2008 and December 2009.
What have we learnt thus far?
What have we learnt thus far?
Spekboom are often planted in the wrong habitat within a landscape or in areas where it did not naturally occur in the past, and this generally results in spectacular failure. We advise getting an expert to map out the target habitat when planting spekboom for ecological restoration.
Browsing by indigenous game such as kudu is a major factor that is often overlooked, and strongly influences survival and growth of spekboom restoration plantings. It is best to make provisions for limiting both wildlife and domestic animals access to spekboom plantings as much as possible.
Planting larger truncheons (up to 30 mm stem diameter) generally increases survival and subsequent growth rates, and thus carbon sequestration, and is more advisable than planting smaller truncheons (10-15 mm stem diameter).
Applying rooting hormone and watering treatments (200 ml) to cuttings at planting time does not have a major influence on survival or growth rates, and therefore not necessary.
Other findings and lessons learned
Other findings and lessons learned
Many of the thicket-wide plots have been visited by sampling teams and researchers since their establishment, but many have also been neglected. The majority of plots (62%) were found to have been planted in unsuitable habitat. The initial agreement with the respective landowners was that they would to a reasonable degree maintain the animal exclosure fences around established plots and not allow domestic animals entry. In the majority of cases this has not transpired and many plots have been exposed to severe browsing by domestic animals. Some of the farmers have removed the fences altogether, and have said that they did this because livestock and game were getting caught in the fences, while others have used the plots as kraals for their livestock. During the current drought period, some of the farmers have from desperation, resorted to using the spekboom in the plots as a source of food for their livestock, which is unfortunate, but quite understandable, as their farming operations are in a dire state at the moment.
We are in the process of revisiting each plot and assessing whether each is still of future use to us as part of the experiment. We will focus on renewed negotiation and buy-in from the relevant landowners of plots found suitable to include in the continuing maintenance of the experiment. At the same time we are assessing survival, growth rates, leaf litter generation and aboveground carbon sequestration rates of all treatments in the plots with the use of aerial imagery obtained by flying a drone over the plots.
In search of the "Lost Plots"
In search of the "Lost Plots"
The project has been implemented in 2008 and over time and change in project management some data on established plots were lost. We are in the process of updating our records for each plot. Some of the GPS points are not valid, contact details of some landowners does not exist and new landowners on farms made it a little difficult to contact all owners. If you have a plot on your farm and did not hear from us this year, please send us an email so that we can contact you and find our lost plots!
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