Arbour Month Started Off With A Big Bang
Overstrand Municipality started celebrating Arbour Month with a big bang when we received the ‘green crown’ as first prize winners for the Local Municipality Category of the National Arbor City Award. The awards event took place in Mbombela on 1 September 2022 to coincided with the launch of Arbour Month.
The prize money received will be spent on greening projects and for educational purposes. With this in mind, Overstrand Municipality encourages residents to plant trees - even the smallest of gardens can be home to the right tree. Arbour Month is after all a celebration of trees and all that they do for our beautiful planet.
Planting trees is a great way of giving back to the next generation and in addition they provide shade, produce oxygen, prevent water run-off and erosion, reduce noise and assist with settling the dust and they are ‘home’ to for various fauna and flora who live in the trees.
As usual, the Parks Department and Environmental Department are organising a number of events to plant trees throughout September.
The aim is not only to green and beautify our communities, but to get the message out there that tree planting is an incredible, fun way for young and old to connect with nature while helping the planet to combat climate change.
Overstrand Municipality planted more than 1 000 trees the last three years and pledged their commitment to be part of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) Ten Million Trees Programme. Mayor Rabie has joined the Trees in Cities Challenge and pledged to plant trees for supporting the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in building sustainable, more resilient, and greener cities of tomorrow.
On 12 September, the Overstrand planted 20 of the 160 trees received from DFFE in the new housing development along Swartdam Road in Zwelihle. On 14 September a further 12 trees were planted at the Kleinmond Tennis Club and ten at the Kleinmond Rugby Field. The newly planted trees have been captured on the Overstrands Tree Data Base in order to keep track of the growth and health of the trees.
The Tree Data Base has been developed to manage the Urban Trees in the Overstrand area. On-going tree maintenance is required to ensure public safety and the retention of environmental and social values. Trees in an urban landscape require significant maintenance as they can be impacted by age, interference, pests, diseases and environmental degradation.
The Municipality will use this tree inventory to enable it to make sound management decisions. The system captures each tree with its name, height, health, risk factor and what work needs to be done on the tree.
By planting a tree today means you invest in a better environment in years to come.
