DemitriN

An update and some good news relating to Deer Park Forest... As of yesterday, 29/01/2026, TMNP has issued an instruction for all ringbarking to cease across the park following on multiple complaints. SAN Parks will be conducting investigation into the damage and destruction of the trees. It appears evident that Sugarbird Projects has gone beyond their original mandate of removing the wattles. I am enquiring why there was not proper consultation with the local community, and also questioning whether there has been any formal environmental impact assessment conducted before SP started destroying so many large trees in the area. I will update at a later time. I have attached photos showing some of the damage in Deer Park Forest. Hopefully these trees can be replaced with new ones - possibly indigenous species! In an area as vast as TMNP, fynbos and Forest can easily coexist and hopefully this can be the way forward! Thanks everyone who weighed in on this. Have an awesome weekend everyone! 😎

Thank you for your post. -Clearly Kirstenbosch falls outside TMNP. Glad we can agree on that point! 😁 -Interesting you use the better term “exotics” when referring to oak trees and not “aliens”. I like that 👍🏼💯 -I am glad you see value in Kirstenbosch with its very many exotic plants and tree species from all over the globe. Rainbow nature for our rainbow nation! -As you correctly point out, Kirstenbosch botanical garden’s significance is derived by, among other factors, its historical value, educational value, and popularity. I believe Deer Park Forest offers these too. -Both Kirstenbosch and Deer Park have fynbos. So fynbos and forest CAN coexist! ✌️ Peace!

Based on some of the dissenting viewpoints being expressed above, may I ask out of interest: What are your opinions of the existence of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens?

Apparently horses are alien too - and quite invasive 🐿️🐴🙈

Martin, try telling this to my children and their friends who’ve grown up playing in Deer Park Forest since they were toddlers (we live a stone’s throw away). They’ve climbed trees there, collected pine cones, caught tadpoles, picnicked, and played hide and seek there. To them, it’s a forest 100%. Grownups can sure be pretty ruthless and selfish at the best of times. For such a small piece of estate I can’t understand the heart or rationale of those intent on destroying it. Peace bro ✌️

Haha this is sooo classic! 😄 I genuinely appreciate hearing from all of you. I must admit, I was expecting more support from my fellow mtb'ers!!! Guess I didn't realise that preserving a breathtakingly beautiful forest with streams, trails and picnic areas in a built up urban city was such an outlandish concept! I can accept those who are fynbos fanatics - whatever floats your boat! But I do challenge those to be a bit more open minded and consider some give and take like marriage. I am not advocating destruction of any fynbos area, but simply the preservation of a forest area. All the negative critical comments have me wondering: - Has vegetation become so highly charged and politicised in SA that people are ready to go to war and destroy anything that didn't originate on our soil? "One alien, one axe!" - Why do we have to label every non-SA plant "alien"? - other countries don't do that. Why can't we use the more common and positive term, "exotic"? - Are pine trees and oak trees really "invasive"? - Really? That label is also being thrown around way too much IMO. Have the pine trees in Deer Park multiplied like maggots and increased exponentially in the last 20 years? I can vouch they certainly haven't. - What about coexisting? With a 'give and take' philosophy in a mountain national park as large as ours, surely we could designate sections for fynbos and a section for forest? To keep things in perspective, take a look at the Table Mt satellite image... Deer Park Forest is a tiny speck in relation to the total space available for fynbos. Why not preserve this forest area for the many Capetonians who cherish it and use it on a daily basis? Or am I missing something?

Thank you! I've just been checking the maps...

Amazing photo! Thanks so much for posting and for your support

Thanks for taking the time to write on this post and share your perspective! The squirrels in the company gardens are the exact same variety as those in Deer Park Forest. Am I understanding you and other posters correctly that anything (plant or animal) originating outside our borders has no right to exist in our space? Must the squirrels also be caught and culled along with the pines? Very interesting perspectives here! 🪓😅 Irony of all this is that 99% of the vegetation in our gardens and 99% of our pets originate outside of SA - not to mention most of us! 😬

Please help save Deer Park forest from extinction and preserve the wildlife that has called it home for the past hundred years 🙏🏽🌲🌲🌲 https://c.org/YttswwB8zK

Road biker? 🙂

Thanks for your thoughts!

Yes! Agreed 100% As the old saying goes: "The one thing we learn from history is that people don't learn from history!" Remove Table Mountain's trees, and the pre-1800's windswept wasteland returns - along with annual dust storms and mud slides. And people will be cursing.

Haha, bring it on! Trees are a taller order than bushes! 🙂

Thank you for your good suggestion! I will so this. Believe it or not, there is some headway being made... I have been informed that even pine and eucalyptus forests have some measure of protection on the grounds of their recreational value for humans.