Harvesting of small Mopani trees in northern KNP

[serval]

I have recently spent a bit more than a week in the far north and found numerous piles of small mopani branch offcuts - clearly cut from the bushes along the roadside (average approx 4 cm diameter andaround 70cm long) alongside the road south of Shingwedzi.
A staff member told me the wood is harvested and is part of the program instituted to assist the communities bordering the KNP .
On returning southwards a week later the piles (roughly as large as a concrete bag ) were still there and I assume the wood (I would estimate enough to fill a few hundred concrete bags) has been lying there for some time as the grass is actually starting to grow through the piles of wood and it is obvious that someone is regularly helping themselves to the wood ...

[cheetah]

Eish.

[Richprins]

Ja, serval!

Saw this last year this time too!

A PR exercise by SanParks for the communities.

[Richprins]

Here are some pics of the bundles south of Shing, serval!

3 Oct:











Looks like they've been lying there a long time!

But the ones on the Mopani - Phalaborwa road were gone!







And a number of km further north, the workers!

[Flutterby]

Nice firewood just lying there begging for someone to pick it up!!

[Richprins]

This bush clearing has been done for many decades next to the tar roads, just got another name now!

[iNdlovu]

If it's to clear the growth on the verges of the roads, that's a good thing. Everyone knows how difficult it can be to spot a large animal such as an ellie in thick bush and if a few of the grumpy ones decide to play ambush as they often do, it makes it a lot more difficult to hide and spring out at you as you pass slowly by.

[Sprocky]

Not very good if you are a birder. You need the smaller birds close to you to get decent photos and the further back they cut the trees the further the birds will be from your camera.