THE KNYSNA FORESTS

TREES ARE POEMS THAT THE EARTH WRITES UPON THE SKY

-Khalil Gibran

South Africa is blessed with many things, but it has always been short of both water and natural woodlands. And yet of about 250,000 hectares of indigenous forest which grew in the Southern Cape in the mid 1700's, only about 65,000 hectares remain.

DESTRUCTION

Little is known of the earliest human inhabitants of the Garden Route, except that they were mostly wanderers who relied largely on the ocean for their sustenance. It is almost certain, therefore, that the forests lay virtually untouched until the late 1700's, when woodcutters' posts were established at George and Plettenberg Bay. In 1804, George Rex - the man they call "the founder of Knysna" - settled here with the express intention of exploiting the forests, and in 1817 the Naval Commissioner at Simonstown wrote that the Knysna forests contained "a sufficient quantity of fine timber to build a whole navy." A naval dockyard was therefore established at Knysna in 1820, although it was burned down twice before even a single ship was built and it was closed after just 5 years. During World War II, however, a local boatyard, Thesen & Co., was employed to build ships for the British Navy. Fortunately for the Knysna forests, though, these vessels were built from imported hardwoods, although the boats' knees, which held the ribs to the thwarts, were made from indigenous milkwood.

Knysna's first harbour facility, the wooden 'Government Jetty,' was built in 1883 and the brig Ambulant was its first visitor. She came to load a typical cargo of the time: 3,000 railway sleepers cut from indigenous yellowwood.

Harvesting continued throughout the 19th century and was responsible for much of the destruction of the forests, although encroachment and the Great Fire of 1869, which burned a huge swath from George to Humansdorp, also contributed. The first Conservator Of Forests was appointed in 1874 as a direct result of a Government enquiry into the fire, but indiscriminate exploitation was only finally stopped in 1939, when the forests were closed to independent woodcutters.

HARVESTING

Indigenous timber is now harvested at a rate of no more than 2m3 (1 tree) per hectare. The process - called the "mortality harvesting pre-emption system" is strictly controlled by Government and seeks to emulate the forests' natural cycle. Only trees which can be expected to die within the next ten years are felled - and in the felling, space is made for young saplings to grow towards maturity.

Apart from this limited harvesting, our indigenous forests are now protected and will remain so for generations to come.

CONSERVATION

The history of the forests reminds us of the inter-connectedness of all things and therefore of the need to conserve. Our forefathers saw the forests as a vast resource which could never be depleted, but their harvesting of timber has created other problems, like poor water and soil quality, which will worsen unless every care is taken to preserve the remaining natural environments.

PROTECTED TREES OF THE KNYSNA AREA

Although all indigenous trees are protected to some extent, the following species have been given the highest level of protection:

Outeniqua Yellowwood (Kalander) - the 'big tree.' Its timber was once used for ships' masts and is now used for furniture.

Real Yellowwood - more popular than kalander, it has always been sought after for beams, flooring and furniture (to tell the difference when you're in the forest: the kalander's bark peels off in ragged blocks, while the real yellowwood's peels off in narrow, vertical strips).

Milkwood - produces a strong, hard and durable timber which was formerly used in boat building. Protected because it grows in thickets which create unique micro-environments in the coastal scrub. The bark is used in traditional medicine for treating broken limbs and to dispel nightmares.

Stinkwood - a hard and heavy but easily worked wood which ranges in colour from gold through brown to almost black. It is one of the most expensive and highly prized timbers in the world and has become a symbol of Cape culture. [read on]