By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - In South Africa s Franschhoek mountains a helicopter drops off abseilers to cut down invasive pine trees that are choking off water supplies to millions of Cape Town residents already facing climate change-induced shortages. The crews are there to help to remove 54,000 hectares of alien trees by 2025, in the process reclaiming an estimated 55 billion litres of water lost each year - two months water supply for Cape Town. Using hand saws to cut saplings while dangling over craggy cliffs, the team is targeting infestations of alien tree species, mainly pine but also Australian acacia and eucalyptus, that carpet swathes of mountainside in dark green foliage. We can t eradicate the pines, but we ve got to manage and control them because the scale is too big. It s a massive problem, said Louise Stafford, South Africa s programme director at The Nature Conservancy, an NGO leading the process. The control of the pines was fast-tracked in 2018, when Cape
In South Africa’s Franschhoek mountains a helicopter drops off abseilers to cut down invasive pine trees that are choking off water supplies to millions of Cape Town residents already facing climate change-induced shortages.
The crews are there to help to remove 54,000 hectares of alien trees by 2025, in the process reclaiming an estimated 55 billion liters of water lost each year two months of water supply for Cape Town.
Using hand saws to cut saplings while dangling over craggy cliffs, the team is targeting infestations of alien tree species, mainly pine, but also Australian acacia and eucalyptus, that carpet swathes