Pearly Beach Conservancy Hack on 5 March 2022

Pearly Beach is a green village. It has more than 10 public open spaces where natural coastal plants grow. These spaces provide a habitat for many different bird species and small wild animals, such as antelope and porcupine, and they make the village feel open and spacious for its residents. Nevertheless, their presence and value are generally underrated. In addition, they are under constant threat from alien plant invaders, mainly Rooikrans and Port Jackson. That is why the Pearly Beach Conservancy monitors these sites on a regular basis. If alien invasive plants are seen to be growing on these erven, the Conservancy team does its utmost to eradicate them with the help of volunteers who are called upon to help via social media and email. One such clearing effort, or “hack” as it is commonly called, took place on the public open space in Spin Street on the western side of the village on 5 March 2022. Eleven people took part and three bakkie loads of alien plant matter were removed. The participants worked hard, but had lots of fun too. They celebrated their achievements by having a refreshing craft beer at the Whale Coast Brewing Company. Elrina Versfeld, one of the Conservancy management committee members, followed up on these clearing efforts a few days later by engaging the services of Willie, a local chainsaw operator, who was able to cut out the vegetation that had grown too large to remove by hand. The Pearly Beach Conservancy wishes to thank everyone for their hard work and enthusiasm and looks forward to welcoming the help of hacking volunteers in the future. The health of our environment depends on us.