OVERBERG RENOSTERVELD CONSERVATION TRUST NEWS
Newsletter 34 | August 2024
by Dr Odette Curtis-Scott
Get ready for a rip-roaring renosterveld spring
Renosterveld doesn’t follow a calendar. This year our renosterveld landscapes in the Overberg seemed convinced that spring had already arrived early in August. It’s likely linked to the very wet winter season in the Overberg – including another flooding event in June.
For the ORCT, it means we’ve had to jump into action a little earlier, to start our spring botanising. And I’m excited about what I’m already seeing. So far it’s promising to be a very special spring for renosterveld indeed.
A bit of a change…
We’ve heard over the course of many years that our name, the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust, is a bit too long and complicated. So we’re making a small change – we’re becoming the Overberg Renosterveld Trust.
That doesn’t mean that conservation doesn’t remain at the heart of what we do. But it simply means that our name is easier to remember. And you’ll start to see the changes to our platforms over the coming weeks.
Latest Renosterveld News
Less than 5% of renosterveld remains today. Much of what survives exists on privately owned farmland.
From one to 23: A protected renosterveld network emerges
Protected fragments of renosterveld across the Overberg are starting to form something far more meaningful than isolated patches.
Size matters: A new large-scale renosterveld landscape protected
The newly signed conservation easement, Oudekraalskop, brings Endangered Eastern Rûens Shale Renosterveld and Rûens Silcrete Renosterveld under protection in
An invisible crisis in renosterveld
The tiny relationships holding everything together. Together with fire, these animals drove the structure of the renosterveld ecosystem and the constantly changing ratios of shrubs to grasses.