Trees take centre stage for Arbor Month
07 September 2020
The City of Cape Town kicked off Arbor Month with the planting of the first of thousands of trees to highlight the importance plants have in our ecosystem. Tree planting took place at a number of sites simultaneously earlier today.
The tree planting was the first of a series of events planned throughout the city during Arbor Month with a focus on awareness, education, and sustainability.
‘By encouraging our youth to care about the environment, we teach the importance of what nature gives to us. During Arbor Month, we are pleased that various neighbourhoods will experience the benefit of the greening of parks and facilities, including at Community Residential Units; transforming these areas into urban forests and we are pleased to involve residents in the projects specifically at Sentinel Park, Lavender Hills projects,’ said Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan Plato.
Trees and the preservation of both natural and urban forests are directly linked to the human race as they provide food, oxygen, and medicine aside from limitless other socio-economic and aesthetic environmental benefits.
With forests steadily declining, the City finds it critical to educate the public on how to reduce activities that destroy trees and simultaneously encourage residents to take advantage of natural protected areas managed by the Recreation and Parks Department.
‘Trees are a valuable contribution to our landscape and add to our daily lives, while helping to improve the overall quality of our health and happiness. It is equally important that we lead by example and not only educate the next generation but also encourage them to plant more and conserve existing trees,' said the Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Zahid Badroodien.
This year, an exciting partnership with Scouts South Africa (Scouts SA) has been established, resulting in 2 000 spekboom plants being adopted and nurtured by young people between 10 – 18 years old, who are active members of scouting clubs within their respective communities.
'Our members will be required to submit a photograph of the growth progress of their plants by June 2021, and will receive a certificate for making the pledge to care for the spekboom. When the spekboom is well established, a second phase of the project will include taking cuttings from the spekboom, to propagate another new plant. This complements the Sustainable Development Goals supported by Scouts SA for 2020,’ said Paddy Milner, Regional Commissioner of Scouts SA in the Western Cape.
At an event at Newlands Nursery this morning, a group of Scouts collected their spekboom, attended a demonstration on how the spekboom can be grown from cuttings and learnt where it is suitable to plant their spekboom.
They also had an opportunity to explore the outdoors and see where thousands of trees of different varieties are grown from seedlings in trays to tall, sturdy rows of trees waiting to be planted on sidewalks, parks and public open spaces.
A few lucky scouts joined Recreation and Parks teams off site in Durbanville and Khayelitsha, to plant two of these trees outside as part of the day’s festivities.
For more information, download the free Best Practice Guidelines for Trees https://bit.ly/CCT-TreeGuide.
For more information or to grow your own spekboom, please go to https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Graphics%20and%20educational%20material/Spekboom_Information_Booklets.pdf.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
