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Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
Just Trees plant 180 Clanwilliam cedars in the Cederberg
2014 marks the fifth consecutive year that Just Trees - South Africa's largest wholesale (and first carbon neutral) tree nursery - has been actively involved in the Clanwilliam Cedar Restoration Project: an initiative to save a conifer species that once forested the Cederberg that's now threatened with extinction, as highlighted on the Global Red Data List.
Since 2010, in partnership with Cape Nature, Just Trees, along with sister company red espresso®, has helped to propagate and plant 1,200 Clanwilliam cedars into the Cederberg - with an overall success and survival rate of 40% (480 trees) over the past five years. This number is three times the number of cedar trees that Cape Nature was able to plant in 23 years, between 1987 (the year of the project's inception) and 2010.
Just Trees' fifth annual Cedar Planting Day
On Saturday, 28 June 2014 - Just Trees' fifth annual Cedar Planting Day, the Just Trees and red espresso® teams, along with customers, suppliers, families and friends, braved zero degree temperatures to plant 180 trees in the Cederberg Mountains. Joining the Just Trees team this year were the members of the Goedgedacht team, who manage the new crèche and afterschool facility at Just Trees. The children from the after school facility, which offers a safe learning and playing environment, started growing cedar trees last year under the guidance and direction of Just Trees' General Manager, Andre Scholtz and their saplings will be planted in the Cederberg next year.
The 100-strong group, armed with trees and spades, hiked for 90 minutes, walking past one of the few remaining 500-year-old cedar trees, to a planting site earmarked by Cape Nature. After a good lesson in planting, Cape Nature's Patrick Lane offered guidance on site selection and planting trees in areas where they would be protected against fire damage and benefit from good water run-off. All 180 trees were planted well and watered from fresh mountain water from a nearby stream. Cape Nature staff logged each tree's location with GPS coordinates for future reference and survival analysis. Fortunately, wet conditions and even snow expected in the Western Cape over the next few weeks will allow the trees to establish deep roots before the harsh summer sets in - and hopefully give them a fighting chance for survival.
Just Trees Managing Director, Carl Pretorius, says, "I would like to thank Patrick Lane and his team at Cape Nature for their continued dedication, especially towards restoring the Clanwilliam cedar tree population in the Cederberg. It's starting to feel like we are making an impact and this really excites us to do more."
Since 2010, Just Trees has donated a 1,500 Clanwilliam cedar trees to Cape Nature, which the organisation has used for other planting days such as the Strand Scout Group, as well as local schools.
