Back to where it all started |20 August 2012
Trying out new planting methods
Nevertheless it was quite a long walk uphill, especially for some determined unfamiliar faces.
This was in early June when members of the Terrestrial Restoration Action Society of Seychelles (Trass) decided to go back to the property of Coco de Mer Enterprise, where three years ago, in 2009, the non-governmental organisation commemorated its launch by planting over of 200 native plant species, on 20 hectares of forest. This area suffered a huge forest fire in 2008.
Accompanied by members of the President’s Award Scheme, Jj Spirit Foundation and of the Wildlife clubs as well as Praslinois pupils, Trass members traced the trail back to where it all began. Among them were the organisation chairperson and vice-chairperson Victorin Laboudallon and Marc Jean-Baptiste.
The journey up was rather amusing for some enthusiastic pupils who enjoyed the scenery.
Others were so eager to get to the top of the mountain that they even attempted to take the lead from Jimmy, Trass’ very own ‘tour guide’. The path was cleaned and well maintained by the owners of the Coco De Mer Enterprise who takes great pleasure in visiting the plants.
Lush, rolling vegetations of all kinds lined the mountain sides. The chirping of tropical birds, endemic to the Seychelles, could be heard as the wind swayed palm leaves to and fro making them dance to a music of their own.
Trass’ objectives for the day were to assess the state of the plants which were planted three years ago as part of the reforestation of the burnt forest. The members planned to remove creepers around the plants and at the same time helped students and others to identify types of vines and learned the techniques of how to get rid of them.
There were ‘prin maron’ to be planted as part of Trass’s effort to teach appropriate planting methods on burnt land. Trass also wanted to enhance delegates’ knowledge on the native plants planted GPS points to be taken for various plants that were found on the upper part of the mountain where the fire occurred.
Arriving on the top everybody admired and photographed the spectacular view. Then the delegates started to get busy by removing Lepeka, a type of creeper from the plants.
Lepeka is an invasive species that when grown, covers plants when they are still small and prevents them from developing and may even destroy them.
Some, mostly boys, wanted to discover the different planting methods Trass uses on burnt lands. Trass loyal volunteers Sydney and Franky Esther demonstrated the planting method, by adding charcoal and humus to the red soil. After mixing them they added the ‘prin maron’ and gave each plant a tag number and recorded the GPS point.
The students got the chance to try the planting method and to take measurements for monitoring purposes.
The GPS points of plants like ‘bwa merl’, ‘bwa zoliker’, ‘bwa kato’, ‘bwa gayak’ were also taken. The members got the chance to identify the species, discover the differences between them, try to memorise their names and even learn about their name origins and their history from Mr Laboudallon.
Contributed by Brigitte Lesperance, Trass member