The health of a river is often determined by the quality of the water that flows along its course. Due to differences in geology and vegetation, rivers around the country vary with regards to what is termed “healthy”. For example rivers in the Western Cape tend to have a lower pH (more acidic) than rivers up country. To account for these differences in the chemical characteristics of rivers around the country, scientists have developed the South African Scoring System (SASS). (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘water quaility’
Water Quality and SASS
Thursday, January 19th, 2012Removing alien trees along our river
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012For most of us the sight of lush green-leafed tress hanging over a gentle flowing river, invokes a sense of serenity and calm. However, it is true what they say, that “too much of a good thing is bad”, and this is exactly the case of the trees along the Liesbeek River. To be more specific we are talking about the alien trees along the Liesbeek, of which there are many. Alien trees by simple definition, are trees that do not originally occur within a specific geographical area and here in lies their success. They are able to out-compete our own native species because they might be better suited to the environment (e.g. fast growing) and they also have no competition or predation. Within the Western Cape, the majority of alien trees mostly originate from Europe and parts of Australia where water is readily available throughout the year. (more…)
Kevin talks to 567’s John Maytham
Friday, May 28th, 2010FOL Chair and one of 4 intrepid Peninsula Paddlers talked briefly to John Maytham on Cape Talk 567 recently.
Here what he had to say. The MP3 file will play (stream) in the player below and is about 6MB in size for those with limited bandwidth.
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We paddled across the Peninsula!
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010It was such a fun thing to do and hopefully we raised some interest and awareness about the state of Cape Town’s waterways. En route we gathered some fascinating stories: great work being done by Zandvlei Trust; private owners along the canal in Lavender Hill and Cafda trying to improve conditions by creating a park alongside; 35 youngsters meeting us on Princess Vlei all in boats loaned to them by Gravity Adventures; conservation of wetlands at Kenilworth racecourse with funding support from Gold Circle; great turnout of Friends of Liesbeek and public on bridge over Liesbeek; environmental education centre at Zoarvlei; and a glorious paddle down the Black River and into the sea at Woodstock beach. All done in 11 hours. Will I and others do it again…yes of course!!
Kevin in Princessvlei
Please have a look at The Zandvlei Trust website for a more complete pictorial of this paddle.
Also see a podcast of the expedition produced by Rory Williams at http://www.men-about-town.co.za
