Marloth Park Management Plan. - Nkomazi Local Municipality

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For environmental planning not only the vegetation but also the habitat has to be considered. It is therefore, prudent that plant communities, rather than individual plant species, should be considered for management and planning purposes. Plant communities summarise the entire floristic diversity and integrate the environmental variables such as distribution and occurrence of rare and endangered species, the degree of man’s influence, degradation and vegetation dynamics, as well as habitats for animals. The plant composition linked with other environmental factors such as soil, climate, temperature, geological factors and rainfall can explain why certain species occur in this special habitat and give insight to mechanisms in this special ecosystem. With this knowledge predictions can be made as to how the ecosystem might react to applied management actions. The development of vegetation in any area throughout a series of different plant groupings or communities from pioneer to climax species is called plant succession. Succession involves changes of habitat in the form of immigration and consecutive extinction of species, together with changes in their relative abundances. This biotic action happens because the establishment of new plant species changes the microclimate and makes the habitat more suitable for subsequent follow-up plant species. In primary succession development starts on bare ground, which is colonised by pioneer plants. Secondary succession is the rapid recovery of a disturbed habitat. A habitat is disturbed where vegetation cover is removed or modified to an earlier stage because of human interference, animal influence, fire or drought. Ultimately, development leads to a climax community, which represents a relatively stable stage. Equilibrium is reached with either regional climate (climatic climax) or other inhibiting factors such as soil types, topography or nutrient content (edaphic climax) or biotic factors such as the influence of animals, humans or fires (biotic climax). It is important to determine the seral stage represented by the plant community, and to monitor for changes, to achieve the desired objective in manipulating the environment using adaptive management. To facilitate management of an area, it is divided into units of similar characteristics and manageable size. Areas that are influenced by different environmental factors such as geology, geography and climate react differently to natural changes or human interference and have to be considered independently when devising a management plan. The homogenous vegetation units occurring within the area define the management units. Each homogenous unit is identified by its plant composition, where a plant community is defined as a group of associated plant species occurring in a particular habitat with a relatively uniform physiognomy or appearance. © Ecological Associates/ Marloth Park 25
METHOD For an initial and broad scale differentiation of vegetation units of the area, vegetation types and veld types are identified using criteria for classification of South African vegetation. The property boundaries are delineated from aerial photographs 2 , from which homogenous topographic-physiognomic areas are identified and delineated. The differing patterns or shades of grey on the aerial photograph, define the homogenous units. To refine these, further environmental factors are taken into account. Geological formations and land types are obtained from geological and land type maps 3 . Geographic factors such as terrain form, aspect, drainage lines and rivers as well as artificial factors as roads, fences and dams are obtained from topocadastral 4 and hydrological maps 4 . Climatic factors such as mean rainfall and mean temperature are reflected in the different land types and represented in the land type memoirs 5 . Superimposing the different layers on the aerial photograph shows a more detailed partitioning of the homogenous topographic-physiognomic units. After identification of homogenous topographic-physiognomic units, areas for survey plots are chosen using a randomly stratified sampling method, where plots are evenly distributed throughout the homogenous unit. A survey plot distance of at least 100 m away from disturbances such as roads, structures and waterholes has to be implemented. Analytical phase In the field the location of homogenous topographic-physiognomic units are verified, to ensure that the survey plots are representative of the surrounding area. A survey plot size of 4 x 4 m in grassland, and 10 x 20 m in bushveld is considered sufficient in size to be representative of the environment and record most variation. The visually dominant species and the physiognomy of the area, according to Edwards’s classification, are recorded where structural description of the area is required to ensure structural homogeneity. Other environmental factors that can influence plant community development are also recorded: 2 Available from: “The Surveyor General, 240 Vermeulen Street, Pretoria Central 0002 Pretoria“ 3 Available from: “Council for Geoscience, 280 Pretoria Street, Silverton 0184 Pretoria“ 4 Available from: “The Government Printer, 149 Bosman Street, Pretoria Central 0002 Pretoria“ 5 Available from: “Institute for Soil, Climate and Water, 600 Belvedere Street, Arcadia 0001 Pretoria” © Ecological Associates/ Marloth Park 26
Page 1 and 2: Ecological Associates Environmental
Page 3 and 4: THE ASSESSMENT OF AVAILABLE BROWSE
Page 5 and 6: LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Location
Page 7 and 8: LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: A li
Page 9 and 10: Three different scenarios are analy
Page 11 and 12: Ecosystems disturbed by clearing op
Page 13 and 14: INTRODUCTION Although only a few ve
Page 15 and 16: Figure 1: Location of the Marloth P
Page 17 and 18: GEOMORPHOLOGY Looking down from the
Page 19 and 20: Figure 4: Geology of the Marloth Pa
Page 21 and 22: Tonalitic granite and gneiss A sect
Page 23 and 24: Figure 6: Soil depth of the Marloth
Page 25 and 26: Figure 7: Land Types of the Marloth
Page 27 and 28: Figure 8: Land use in the Marloth P
Page 29 and 30: A 610.1 B 104.0 C 7.4 D 19.9 E 39.8
Page 31: INTRODUCTION VEGETATION CLASSIFICAT
Page 35 and 36: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Analysis and
Page 37 and 38: The dominant grass species are broa
Page 39 and 40: The characteristic tree species are
Page 41 and 42: VELD CONDITION ASSESSMENT AND THE C
Page 43 and 44: Degradation gradients are models th
Page 45 and 46: The nearest grass species to each s
Page 47 and 48: Calculation of grazing capacity The
Page 49 and 50: Table 2: Contribution of ecological
Page 51 and 52: Table 3: Grazing capacities for the
Page 53 and 54: THE ASSESSMENT OF AVAILABLE BROWSE
Page 55 and 56: X Y D1 Y Dimensional measurements:
Page 57 and 58: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The browsing
Page 59 and 60: Table 6: Browsing capacities for th
Page 61 and 62: INTRODUCTION ESTIMATION OF HERBACEO
Page 63 and 64: The resulting Large Stock Units are
Page 65 and 66: INTRODUCTION GAME MANAGEMENT ON MAR
Page 67 and 68: STOCKING RATES Current stocking The
Page 69 and 70: Table 10: The current stocking dens
Page 71 and 72: Recommendations on stocking rates C
Page 73 and 74: High selectivity grazers Blue wilde
Page 75 and 76: Waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus Ogil
Page 77 and 78: Space requirements: Kudu have range
Page 79 and 80: Recommendation: The range requireme
Page 81 and 82: Food preference: Steenbok utilise A
Page 83 and 84:
Table 12: The potential stocking de
Page 85 and 86:
Table 14: The potential stocking de
Page 87 and 88:
Table 15: The recommended stocking
Page 89 and 90:
The proteins may be less available
Page 91 and 92:
When urea is incorporated into a ph
Page 93 and 94:
Recommended intake for game is 150
Page 95 and 96:
Ticks The main parasite of concern
Page 97 and 98:
Figure 12: Sketch of Cyphostemma /C
Page 99 and 100:
NOXIOUS AND INVASIVE WEEDS An invas
Page 101 and 102:
Management plans need to be reviewe
Page 103 and 104:
Ricinus communis, Solanum sisymbrii
Page 105 and 106:
Although soil treatment with chemic
Page 107 and 108:
Planning errors must be expected, a
Page 109 and 110:
To further reduce grazing pressure
Page 111 and 112:
Lightning induced fires can also ca
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TIME OF BURNING Least damage is cau
Page 115 and 116:
A low intensity fire will be achiev
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Recommendations for Marloth Park Ma
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Surface erosion will reduce water i
Page 121 and 122:
Several different types of waterhol
Page 123 and 124:
Stones Ground level Reinforced conc
Page 125 and 126:
For safety reasons these requiremen
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Adaptive management Applying adapti
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Figure 15: Location of the monitori
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Appendix 1 (Continue) A list of tre
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Appendix 2 (Continue) A list of gra
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Appendix 3 (Continue) A list of for
Page 137 and 138:
Appendix 3 (Continue) A list of for
Page 139 and 140:
Appendix 4: Alien invaders found on
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Appendix 5: Frequency occurrence of
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Appendix 6: Photographs of each veg
Page 157 and 158:
Appendix 6: Photographs of each veg
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Marloth Park Management Plan. - Nkomazi Local Municipality

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