Marloth Park Management Plan. - Nkomazi Local Municipality

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OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study are to: METHOD • Determine the tree density within the different homogenous units. • Determine the leaf production and of the various woody species in the homogenous units. • Determine the available browse and browsing capacity of the different homogenous units. Due to the factors that determine available browse such as variability in leaf density, palatability and tree structure, it is difficult to find a method that combines applicability and practicability. Different methods for determining browse have been developed and assessed over time. The belt transects have been found to be more accurate and less biased than plot surveys – at least in canopy cover estimates for woody vegetation. With the BECVOL model it is possible to set up a standard procedure to measure browse potential and browse capacity using fairly simply measurements while still obtaining a sufficiently accurate estimation. To determine the total volume of woody plant material in this study the BECVOL method is applied, where the volumetric dimensions of trees are recorded and related to available leaf biomass. The measurements taken are based on an ideal tree, which is regarded as a single stemmed sweet thorn Acacia karroo with a canopy consisting of a dome-shaped crown and cone-shaped base (Figure 11). These measurements are recorded for each tree rooted and identified in a 200 m 2 belt-transect survey. A 2 m long range-rod is used to estimate the tree dimensions. The data collected is then captured and analysed using the BECVOL programme. Primary analysis consists of volumetric calculations to determine the total leaf volume of each tree species recorded. The total leaf volume is then related to potential dry leaf mass, based on known regression equations from harvested trees. Although common bushveld tree species such as sweet thorn Acacia karroo, red bushwillow Combretum apiculatum, sickle bush Dichrostachys cinerea, raisin bush Grewia species and silver cluster leaf Terminalia sericea have specific regression equations, it was found that a strong correlation exists between some of these tree species based on leaf size. Other tree species were thus related to standard regression equations based on this phenomenon. For other tree species general regression equations are based on either microphyllous (small-leaved) or macrophyllous (broad-leaved) tree species. © Ecological Associates/ Marloth Park 47
X Y D1 Y Dimensional measurements: A - Tree height (m) X C D2 B - Height of maximum canopy diameter (m) C - Height of minimum canopy diameter (m) D1 - Maximum canopy diameter (m) D2 - Maximum canopy diameter, perpendicular to D1 (m) E1 - Minimum canopy diameter (m) E2 - Minimum canopy diameter, perpendicular to E1 (m) Figure 11: Schematised illustration of an ideal tree and the parameters used to calculate browse availability © Ecological Associates/ Marloth Park 48 B A E1 E2
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 and 32: INTRODUCTION VEGETATION CLASSIFICAT
Page 33 and 34: METHOD For an initial and broad sca
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: THE ASSESSMENT OF AVAILABLE BROWSE
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
Page 113 and 114:
TIME OF BURNING Least damage is cau
Page 115 and 116:
A low intensity fire will be achiev
Page 117 and 118:
Recommendations for Marloth Park Ma
Page 119 and 120:
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
Page 127 and 128:
Adaptive management Applying adapti
Page 129 and 130:
Figure 15: Location of the monitori
Page 131 and 132:
Appendix 1 (Continue) A list of tre
Page 133 and 134:
Appendix 2 (Continue) A list of gra
Page 135 and 136:
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
Page 141 and 142:
Appendix 5: Frequency occurrence of
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Page 155 and 156:
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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