THE GREEN MAMBAS- FIGHTING ALIEN INVADERS
Is it a bird, is it a plane – no it’s the Green Mambas, our super strong, all-woman alien plant fighting team! Read about their heroic work this year fighting alien invasive plants at our Ukuwela Reserve while supporting their families and communities.Their work is funded thanks to a generous grant by our partners at Elephant Cooperation.
True heroes sometimes carry spray bottles and machetes.
The Green Mambas are back at work at our Ukuwela Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa, a green force of nature armed with a deadly weapon - their alien plant fighting skills. Our 14-woman team started after the rainy season ended late last year and have been working hard since then, battling seemingly impenetrable swaths of invasive alien plants to help restore Ukuwela’s grassland ecosystems. Their work was funded thanks to a grant from our friends at Elephant Cooperation,
The Green Mambas are now on track to clear 358 hectares (almost 885 acres) of invasive plants since they started work last October, a huge restorative impact for our Ukuwela Reserve. Their manual, roll-up-the-sleeves efforts uses 95% less herbicide than widely used chemical methods, keeping our wildlife reserve free of harmful chemicals.
What is an alien plant and why does it need to be removed?
Alien invasive plants are a global catastrophe. They cause both biological and economic havoc around the globe. The problem with alien plants is that when they leave their native land, they leave behind the insects that co-evolved to eat them. This means that the invader can take over its ecosystem, crowding out native plants. Science shows that habitats dominated by native plants support significantly more insect biomass and birds and wildlife overall than habitats dominated by alien plants.
Alien plants become invasive when they crowd out native plants and form monocultures. At our Ukuwela Reserve, we need to remove alien invasive plants because they are a direct threat to the recovery and restoration of wildlife, birds, bees, butterflies, and the restoration of the Reserve’s unique and threatened ecosystems.
What is this alien invader the Green Mambas are fighting?
The invasive plant species of most concern at Ukuwela is a species of flowering shrub in the sunflower family, called Chromolaena odorata (also known commonly as Siamweed or triffid). This plant is so aggressive as an alien invader, it even stars in a post-apocalyptic novel and movie. In the “The Day of the Triffids”, Chromolaena is the alien plant species that arrives on Earth in a green meteor shower, and begins killing people!
These plants truly are scary, not because they mutate into walking plants with a deadly poisonous sting to kill victims, but because of the quick and lasting damage they cause to ecosystems when allowed to spread and invade.
Fighting these alien invaders is hard, hot work for the Green Mambas. So far they've also had close encounters with several big pythons, gotten stung by bees, and even encountered a sleeping leopard in the bushes!
How do we remove alien plants?
This list of our methods begins with the least toxic:
The Green Mambas received their official Herbicide Applicator certifications last year.
Fire. The best time to remove alien plants is after the burn season. The Green Mambas look for new shoots of the regrowing invading plants and stave off a return by target spraying them with herbicide to make sure it cannot regrow. It’s a double punch to keep Chromolaena from returning.
Hand pulling, and other mechanical means. We use this method whenever possible. The Green Mambas, our rangers and volunteers have all hand-pulled and cut out invasive plants. Its hard work with a machete!
Cut-stump treatment for invasive shrubs, vines, and trees. We cut off the alien plant’s stump near the ground and then target spray the individual stump with herbicide.
Herbicides affect humans, wildlife, and plants. The greatest danger comes from spraying herbicides over a whole area, by air or by tractor. At Ukuwela, we and the Green Mambas use herbicides only when other methods are not possible. We choose the safest possible herbicides with the least ecological impact. We do not spray areas indiscriminately; rather we target individual plants.
Our Green Mambas are all proudly certified as Herbicide Applicators and its safe application both for their personal protection and for our Ukuwela Reserve and its fragile ecosystems. For many of the women it was their first formal qualification and they were immensely proud of this achievement and formal training which we provided.
We are so proud of our awesome alien invasive plant fighting team, the Green Mambas! Their next project is clearing invasive guava trees from the Mfuleni section of our reserve.
Click here to see other ways we give back to the community neighboring our wildlife reserve and how you can help.