Page 14 - LandscapeIssue133

FEATURE

Bobbejaanstert (Xerophyta retinervis) thriving on the quartzite ridge. A path winds through grasslands and forested patches. An unobtrusive lecture hut is on the
right, and Rosebank can be seen on the horizon

MELVILLE KOPPIES

By Wendy Carstens, chair of the volunteer Melville Koppies Management Committee

What now? We don’t know how to deal with an indigenous nature reserve in the middle
of a city! This was the reaction from Johannesburg Parks and Recreation (now Joburg

City Parks and Zoo) when Melville Koppies was declared a nature reserve in 1959.

t presented a new challenge as parks and gardens in the 1960s In the 1960s the koppies were quite degraded because of
tended to be very formal and stylised. The few nurseries that frequent fires, squatters, multiple paths, swathes of annual weeds
Iexisted mostly grew exotic/alien plants. Parks approached the and exotic perennial trees and shrubs. Volunteer workers spent
organisations that had pushed for the reserve status of Melville many hours clearing the above on weekends and since there
Koppies for help, and a newly elected volunteer Melville Koppies wasn’t much to do in the apartheid days except go to church,
Committee then set up the JCNH (Johannesburg Council for Natural work parties were well attended. The council provided no labour.
History) to assist with environmental management of the koppies. Because the koppies had never been tilled and had no had
With Wits academia on the Melville Koppies committee, extensive concrete structures, the natural vegetation had not been
research was done into the heritage of everything living on the destroyed. Gradually, grasses and geophytic plants emerged and
koppies, plus the underlying geology. Specimens of every plant a circular scenic route was made that encompassed interesting
found were stored in the Moss Herbarium at the University of the flora, rock formations and the archaeological site. The JCNH
Witwatersrand, and this is still a valuable resource. Management provided a guide book for visitors, who flocked to see this
policy was to keep the natural ambience and stop ambitious building Johannesburg treasure.
‘improvement’ projects. There was no money for such things so it in The current management volunteer committee has continued
any event did not become an issue. The rudimentary useful structures with the management approach of the early committees.
they built are still in use and maintained as necessary. However, the scope has been extended to cover the entire 50ha

12 Landscape SA • Issue 133 2024 Check us out www.salandscape.co.za