Recently, a team of enthusiasts led by Professor Les Underhill, Director of UCT’s Animal Demography Unit, coordinated a workshop on the Rhodes campus, where participants learned how easy it is to become a citizen scientist.
Recently, a team of enthusiasts led by Professor Les Underhill, Director of UCT’s Animal Demography Unit, coordinated a workshop on the Rhodes campus, where participants learned how easy it is to become a citizen scientist.
Why should we want to do that?
Because, by doing so, we can play a part in conserving our planet’s incredible biodiversity.
The Unit has, for several years, been running a variety of atlas projects that provide nature lovers with the opportunity to get outdoors and collect valuable data for science and conservation.
The Virtual Museum (vmus.adu.org.za) is the most comprehensive of the Unit’s projects.
Digital photos are the museum ‘specimens’ which is where the members of the public come in. This innovative tool enables anyone to submit digital photographs along with some basic info for the various Virtual Museum mapping projects.
Currently there are 15 projects listed on the Unit's website, including mushrooms, scorpions, frogs and butterflies. A recent addition to the Virtual Museum has been the Orchid Map started last year by local orchid enthusiast Professor Craig Peter to help build up our knowledge of the distribution of southern African orchid species.
In addition to contributing to the Virtual Museum, there are many other local citizen science opportunities.
The Diaz Cross Bird Club participates in several of the Unit’s atlasing projects, as well as in its bi-annual CAR count (co-ordinated avifaunal roadcounts) recording the presence of large terrestrial birds on three routes in the Bedford area (https://sites.google.com/site/diazcrossbirdclub).
The South African National Biodiversity Institute’s CREW [Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers] project has recently become active in the Albany area — for more info, contact Vathiswa Zikishe at V.Zikishe@sanbi.org.za.
The Kowie Catchment Campaign and Water for Dignity are using citizen science to monitor the water quality of our streams. So make use of your cameras, or join one of the local citizen science initiatives, and join the growing band of ambassadors for biodiversity already doing it and having fun at the same time.
Adopt-a-river comes to Grahamstown
Adopt-a-River is a nationwide initiative of the Department of Water and Sanitation which will see the citizens of Makana becoming directly involved in the care of the Kowie River.
The Department was alerted to the Kowie River’s poor state through their national water quality monitoring programme. Following an initial meeting and field visit in early December last year, representatives of the Department, Makana Local Municipality and stakeholder groups such as the Kowie Catchment Campaign (KCC), Kuyasa Special School, the local branch of WESSA, Khulumani Water for Dignity and Rhodes University selected Lavender Valley as the focus for the Adopt-a-River project in Grahamstown.
A project proposal to provide a framework for managing the river and its surroundings in Lavender Valley is being developed by jointly by Department of Water and Sanitation and these stakeholders.
Makana has a crucial role to play in fixing the leaking sewage infrastructure in the valley, while the combination of funded and volunteer activities at ward level will include removal of rubbish and alien plants, and citizen science to monitor the state of the river.
For more info, contact Laura Bannantyne: ljforster1@gmail.com or 083 228 0046
Green start for RU first-years
Yes, RU students are back in town, and first years are being introduced to campus life and all that it has to offer.
This year, for the first time, an environmental session is being included in the orientation activities.
On Saturday 14 February, interested students will be introduced to the many different environmental initiatives on campus, and will also have an opportunity to engage with hands-on Green activities at several Green Stations set up at the Steve Biko/Union lawns.
Congrats to the Enviro Team at RU for giving first-years a jump start to get involved in campus and local sustainable living initiatives.
More info: www.ru.ac.za/greenliving
Contacts for Makana Enviro-News:
Nikki Köhly: n.kohly@ru.ac.za, 046 603 7205 | Jenny Gon: j-gon@intekom.co.za, 046 622 5822 | Rachel Ibbetson: g14i5652@campus.ru.ac.za, 079 951 3005| Nick James: nickjames@intekom.co.za, 082 575 9781 | Philip Machanick: p.machanick@ru.ac.za, 046 603 8635 | Tim Bull: timothybull05@aol.com, 046 622 6044, 076 289 5122
