The success of the conservancy depends largely of the community, and we have realised that awareness of our ecosystem principles has not been forthcoming.
The majority of the residents live on the western side (Alphen Park) of the lake, and have water frontage. Our birdlife also uses this area to nest in or occasionally visit. How wonderful it is to share our properties with them.
I am sure that most of the residents are aware of our water hyacinth problem, and where this occurs it damages our ecosystem. Water hyacinth is fast growing ( in the warmer months it can double in population every 12 days), and uses up the oxygen and nutrients in the water and that becomes a problem for the fish in the dam. The fish breed in the shallow waters and where the water hyacinth is present, the fish will not breed, because of the lack of oxgen and nutrients. Click on this link to view our Photo Gallery where you will find pictures of Water Hyacinth.
Do you know that when the water hyacinth is removed, dried out and crushed it makes good compost? Again nature has provided us with a solution. So why not take it upon yourselves to remove this invasive weed and reintroduce this into your garden?
Adding compost to soil that lacks organic material increases the nutrients that are essential to the growth and improves the texture of the soil which helps lower the amount of water runoff.
Weeping Willows and Eucalyptus (Gum) Trees consume a lot of water, and they are also listed as an invasive species. Whilst we do encourge removal of these trees, consideration should be taken before removing them. Are there sufficient trees in your garden for the bird life to ensure that you do disrupt the ecosystem balance? if there are then remove this trees, they are consuming our water.
There are many indigenous trees that you can plant in your garden, that will attract the insects and birds that eat the pests, so lesser pests, the lesser insecticides you use, and again you are contributing to a more nutrient soil.
There are also many other ways that you can help by joining our conservancy:
We need to be aware of problems so that we can react to it. We would like to have members on our committee from both sides of the lake.
Have you experienced littering from our visitors to the lake? Do you find that the fisherman are removing the fish from the lake, or visitors turn up the volume of music that it affects you? We need your input so that we can react to this, afterall these factors have an impact on our ecosystem.
The responsibility of the committee is to ensure that we notify our local authorities of the problems and get a reaction from them.
Please sign our guest book and remember to include telephone numbers, we will be in contact with you.