Saturday, June 14, 2008

About the Project


The N7 National Route is the primary road access to flower viewing destinations in Namaqualand and the West Coast. The road reserve along much of the route still supports patches of relatively undisturbed vegetation and during the spring months parts of it provide fine displays of wildflowers that no longer survive beyond the fence line in cultivated land.

In order to raise awareness about this important biodiversity corridor I will be walking from the Namibian border to Cape Town in the N7 road reserve. The aim is to map the rare and endangered plants found in the reserve and assess the condition of the vegetation at regular intervals on the entire route. This data will inform future management of the road reserve and through media attention will raise public awareness about the floral assets found in the road reserve. The walk is planned for August/September 2008.


1 comment:

Mel Tobin said...

What an inspiring way of achieving you goal. As someone who never missed the Namaqualand wildflower displays in over thirty years, and who now misses nature's amazing show, I will follow your progress with great enthusiasm. Can you please advise if you have come across an "Afrikaander" or "Affie" as we used to call these delicate blue freesia-like flowers with an intense, yet subtle fragrance. I hope that they have survived as they were extremely hard to locate when we as kids used to hunt for them (late 1940's or early fifties). Best wishes in your endeavours. Mel Tobin. Canberra. Australia.