Category: Activities

Posted on by

The Fruits Of Lockdown Labour

Foodscaping in Lockdown:

In our last activity before entering into lockdown we handed out thousands of food seeds to the Wilderness Heights Village community, where the majority of residents live around the breadline. The young workforce that PTP is slowly building up to plant out our sponsored trees, live in this community and they have been using lockdown time to plant mini food-gardens all around their homes…. and their green fingers are showing! ❤❤

#foodgardens

#communityupliftment

#growyourown

#precioustreeproject

#treeplantingworkforce

#foodsecurity

Posted on by

Planting for Health

Planting for Health - Tour de Burn - Precious Tree Project

While much has halted or slowed down in our world since lockdown, raising funds to assist the regenerative growth of our natural endemic forests continues and it’s importance to do so is more apparent in light of the health challenges facing the national and global community.

Dr Jon Morley’s vision to plant out 5000 indigenous trees: Instead of kickstarting the cycle event with a 500 km cycle to Afrika Burn this month, he will be hosting a cycling event every 2 months and close off his fundraiser with a cycle to the new Afrika Burn venue in May 2021.

Watch this space for details on Dr Jon’s cycling antics, and if you would like to sponsor his initiative click on this link or you can support his Backabuddy crowdfunding platform at https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/precious-tree.

Tour de Burn – a tree cycling project
Posted on by

Thirty Sponsored Precious Trees Sent to Heaven

While there is still much work to be done on many private properties across Wilderness and Hoekwil w.r.t the clearing of non-indigenous trees and vines, and the many hazards their presence imposes on the area, Alan Fowle and Mandy Basson, have quietly been clearing and rehabilitating their property – HeavenSent – in Hoekwil, to make way for the regeneration of the endemic indigenous trees and the regrowth of the forest floor.

With our very important planters behind us and eager to get stuck in, we gave Al and Mandy’s regenerative efforts a boost. These ongoing restoration attempts of bio-mimicked forests are part of our vision to restore biodiversity, create a larger haven for our wildlife, address carbon levels in our atmosphere, reduce runaway fires, create employment etc.

Thank you Mandy and Al for being custodians of the land that our sponsored trees can call home. If you would like to assist us in our vision, click here to sponsor trees!

#reforestation

#indigenoustrees

#restorebiodiversity

#sitemanagement

#communityupliftment

#precioustreeproject

#treeplanting

#firesecurity

Posted on by

Playing for Trees – thriVe Beach Volleyball Challenge 2019 Fundraising Event

Playing for Trees – thriVe Beach Volleyball Challenge December 2019 Fundraising Event - Precious Tree Project

Playing to plant indigenous trees

The third annual beach volleyball team challenge, co-ordinated by thriVe to raise funds for Precious Tree Project, was held on the 27th of December on Leentjies Klip Beach in Wilderness.

The region had been experiencing more than usual windy conditions for many weeks prior to the event, and while paragliding enthusiasts generally benefit a whole lot from these windy conditions, they are not favourable for beach volleyball and the possibility of needing to postpone the event existed. On the day though, conditions were perfect for a full day of uninterrupted volleyball.

A big thank you to:

Beach House Backpackers for hosting our Prize Giving and always making our experience so enjoyable.

Robin Auld & Wendy Oldfield for sponsoring CD’s as part of the prizes awarded on the day.

SPAR Wilderness for donating the prizes for the winning team (a picnic basket for two for each of the winning team members) and who have subsequently elected to sponsor this event every year.

Playing for Trees – thriVe Beach Volleyball Challenge December 2019 Fundraising Event
Playing for Trees – thriVe Beach Volleyball Challenge December 2019 Fundraising Event
Playing for Trees – thriVe Beach Volleyball Challenge December 2019 Fundraising Event
Posted on by

An Inspirational Family Planting Trees on Holiday

An inspirational family planting trees on Holiday
An inspirational family planting trees on Holiday

Appropriately named for its lush natural vegetation, the Garden Route is one of the few natural forest biomes in Southern Africa. The area supports a wide variety of animal and plant life and is a popular tourist/holiday-maker’s destination with its rivers, mountains, oceans, lagoons, bird-walks, waterfalls, sunny weather and adventure activities. Under the surface of it all, our area faces numerous environmental challenges: diminishing natural forests, the growing presence of highly invasive non-indigenous trees/vines and the increasing loss of biodiversity as a result.

In December, Andy Davis – the climber – and his family came down to the Garden Route for their family vacation. Keen to plant trees as one of their holiday activities and assist PTP with our reforestation and regenerative efforts in the Garden Route, we organised a planting session for the family in Karatara. The family sponsored 28 indigenous trees that they planted out at Melody Hills – a site where the owners, Heinie and Chrissie, have spent the past few years rehabilitating the natural vegetation on their property and removing highly invasive non-indigenous trees. Thank you Andy and family for your contribution to our mission to plant a million trees in the Garden Route!

  • Andy Davis
  • Andy Davis Family
Posted on by

Growing the Indigenous Forest at the Botanical Gardens

Growing the Indigenous Forest at the Botanical Gardens - Precious Tree Project
Growing the Indigenous Forest at the Botanical Gardens - Precious Tree Project

The Botanical Gardens in George has been slowly re-establishing an on-site indigenous forest on their grounds. PTP and its very important volunteer planters, gathered together in December for a final tree planting session of the year and planted out 40 indigenous trees – adding to the newly established mini forest the Botanical Gardens set up earlier on in the year with help from GreenPop.

Hot, dry conditions on the day did not make planting easy and the stone-hard ground made digging the holes pretty challenging. But in true style, our enthusiastic volunteers got stuck in, dug the holes and gave these precious trees a new home! Earthworm juice & compost was added to boost growing conditions and assist these newly planted trees until they fully established themselves in the ground.

Sponsor our vision of planting a million trees and assist the natural reforestation process along the Garden Route – Sponsor Trees!

Posted on by

Volunteer Tree Planting – George Botanical Gardens 7 December 2019

Volunteer Tree Planting - Botanical Gardens, George - Precious Tree Project

Volunteer Tree Planting – George Botanical Gardens

Hi everyone, some good rains coming our way for our forests this week!

Come join our final volunteer tree planting gathering for the year at the Botanical Gardens in George on Saturday, the 7th of December 2019 @13:00.

Bring your spades and watering cans if you have. As it is the final gathering for the year, bring a picnic basket, with a plate to share, your drinks and a blanket to sit on. We hope to see all our VIP’s (Very Important Planters) there! 🌳❤

Like and follow our Facebook Page for live updates.

Posted on by

Expanding the Oakhurst Forest

Corporate Team Building Oakhurst Forest - Precious Tree Project
Corporate Team Building Oakhurst Forest - Precious Tree Project

Expanding the forest one precious tree at a time!

In September 2019, Oakhurst Insurance Company Limited in George committed to growing a bio-mimicked patch of indigenous forest on one of our reforestation sites (Libertas) in Hoekwil. This initiative is one of their measures to address climate change and assist PTP in restoring biodiversity to this area.

In October, as part of another team-building initiative, a number of their staff took some time out of the office to get their hands dirty by planting more endemic, indigenous trees along the riverine area – including the Outeniqua Yellowwood, Boekenhout, Cape Holly, True Yellowwood and Wild Olive.

Creating these bio-mimicked forest patches along the riverine area is more than simply “replacing” the natural forest area that previously grew here and which had become smothered by highly invasive non-indigenous trees and vines … it is also about assisting the natural regeneration of the existing forest trees – given time and assistance, the forests along the riverine area will restore themselves …. and this mini forest is there to assist the process!

  • Corporate Team Building Oakhurst Forest - Precious Tree Project
  • Corporate Team Building Oakhurst Forest - Precious Tree Project
  • Corporate Team Building Oakhurst Forest - Precious Tree Project
  • Corporate Team Building Oakhurst Forest - Precious Tree Project

Gift a Tree!

Posted on by

Offerings from Nature

Offerings from Nature - Keurboom - Precious Tree Project

The heavy winds that had become a regular occurrence in the last 3 months of 2019 played havoc with some of the Keurbooms in our area. Virgilia divaricata & Virgilia oroboides. Keurbooms are pioneer trees – they are one of the first of the endemic trees in the Garden Route to pop up and they grow very quickly – providing initial canopies of shade to many of the not-as-fast growers and generally have a life span of around 15 years.

The flowers of both species are rich in nectar and therefor attract many insects and birds – loeries, sunbirds, carpenter bees, honey bees and ants. They also provide nesting homes for birds like doves and white-eyes. Vervet monkeys chew the leaves and eat the seeds. On the forest floor, the large ghost moth, Leto venus, is known to lay its eggs at the foot of the tree so that the hatching caterpillars can bore into the wood. The blue butterfly (Lampides boeticus) breeds on Keurboom trees.

  • Keurboom
  • Keurboom Flower - Precious Tree Project
    Keurboom Flower

Two Keurbooms on one of the small holdings in Wilderness Heights fell over as a result of the heavy winds in September and October 2019. PTP used this as an opportunity to harvest the seeds of these fallen trees for our future tree planting needs. We also used this as an opportunity to provide employment for some of our young – where they spent the day removing the seeds from their pods, counting them out and packaging them in recycled containers for germination at our mini satellite nurseries.

Gift a Tree

Posted on by

Planting Precious Trees in a Heatwave

Planting trees in a Heatwave - Volunteer Tree Planting - Precious Tree Project
Planting trees in a Heatwave - Volunteer Tree Planting - Precious Tree Project

Volunteer Tree Planting: We spent Saturday afternoon at the Smarts’ spot – one of our Wilderness Heights mini forest sites – where we got stuck into ring-barking any Australian Blackwoods we could see and adding more precious trees to their existing mini forest.

Planting trees in a heatwave. It was hot and dry, and the recorded 16mm of rainfall a few days before didn’t touch sides to soften the ground. Still baring scars from our ring-barking efforts last month, our committed bunch pitched up in numbers and planted these beautiful trees (some of them 1.9m Yellowwoods) in what had once been a pine-infested area. This is the one of many rewards …. that we get to keep adding to these mini forests here in the Garden Route and watch them grow year on in!

Sponsor a Tree!