Article and photos by Andrea Durrheim
W
e all know how devastating soil erosion
is in terms of loss of
soil fertility – any
exposed area is vulnerable, and precious soil is lost with every rain
storm and gust of wind. There are,
of course, already excellent methods to improve the fertility of arable land, but marginal areas that
are too steep for farming activities,
river beds and wetlands can easily
erode if soil is exposed, and can
ultimately start destabilising areas
that were previously arable.
Alien plants are also a huge problem – and once they’ve been removed something has to take their
place. Who can afford to replant a
large area with nursery specimens?
Just about no-one!
If you are lucky enough to live in a
high rainfall area, you may not have
as much of a problem. Pioneers like
Sour Fig and Bitou, pop up all on
their own, and unless sloping areas
are very steep indeed, are able to
Wetlands are particularly rich habitats
stabilise the soil. If not, there are
several geotextiles and methods of
building retaining walls, but ultimately, establishing plant cover
adds an important contribution to
your strategy.
Here are some ideas that I’ve seen
working well in practice:
Revegetating a river valley
I few years ago, I visited a massive
project in the Overberg area in
which a river system that had been
choked with alien plants and had