Interview

1. What is your name?

My name is Alfredo Reinaldo Lobo da Neves.
2. What is your role in the community?
I’m a Community Naturist.
3. How has your role helped our community?
I help the community by showing the nature in the area. I love to
share the knowledge I have gained on different flora and fauna.
When possible, I pick rubbish to make the area clean for both people
and animals. From 2016 I planted aloes in an open plot, which is very
beautiful when the flowers bloom in the winter months.
4. Are things better today than in the past?
Some things are the same as in the past but unfortunately some
things have gotten worse. Pollution, fires, illegal plant picking, and
other human impacts have negatively affected the natural life in the
area.
There is room for improvement though, recording the life on Ottery
Field and having a plan to make a community park could be steps
forward to preserve the nature in the area.

.

Ottery was a wetland marsh
area in the Cape Flats region.
The plant life would have
mainly been wetland
vegetation and Cape Flats
sand fynbos. The most
2. Ottery Wetlands.
likely example of how
things may have looked
before human development
may be found within the
Kenilworth Racecourse
Conservation Area.
Ottery was developed later in
Cape Town’s history, as most
5. Ottery Train Station
areas that were built and
developed, first surrounded
the mountain. Ottery was
mostly lots of farmland with
3. Man cutting down gum tree
6. Feeding pigs on farm
THE HISTORY OF OTTERY
farm houses, some of the land and loss of several species in the area including fynbos
belonging to pig farms. The Ottery species.
Township could be found in the
The field has
south. Residents confirm that the
gone through
entrance was on Ottery Road,
1. Drain many phases,
through the gum trees by Belletuin
mostly due to
Flats.
human impact,
Some of the oldest constructions in the surrounding area including
are the Ottery Train Station, Kenilworth Racecourse, and dumping,
The Royal Golfclub. Various structures and roads no general pollution, fires, alien vegetation, and plant
longer exist, including housing and other man-made picking.
structures. Drains and canals were installed to drain the
Most alien plants species
field, which seems to have worked because the fields are
4. Field fire
disrupt native
dryer than what they were in the past. This comes with a
plant species,
cost to the habitat and biodiversity in the area. Water
spreading fast and absorbing
being drained changes the amount of water on the field,
lots of water drying the field
the water table in the ground, and potentially any
further. They also change the
aquifers fed by wetland negatively impacting vegetation
soil, and spread and grow
and animal life. There were lots of construction in the
faster than native plant
1980s which laid the foundation for much of the Ottery
8. Invasive alien: Port Jackson species, limiting the space
we see today. There were plans for further development
available for native plants
during the 80s and 90s including roads, housing, schools
to grow.
and more; most were put on hold as the field was too
wet. The most vulnerable and
threatened lives in the field
Much of the
is rare plants and frog
agriculture,
species.
construction,
9. Frog
and draining of
water led to Dumping has been done
habitat loss by multiple parties over
the years, much of the
dumping are individuals
and companies not
wanting to haul rubbish
7. Fynbos
10. Polluted grounds
 to an established dumping site making pollution is a
problem in the area.
Ottery field is a natural wetland and grassland home to
many species of plants and animal, deserving protection
and attention. Lots of history has been lost to human
development already, action needs to be taken to
preserve the present, so the future can enjoy their rich
history.