Teaching TTT

Great Fish River Reserve (SA): EarthCollective members responded to an unexpected request came from the University of Fort Hare and Eastern Cape Parks. Team members undertaking the Vegetation Monitoring Programme (VMP) in the Great Fish River Reserve (GFRR) were invited to give a practical field course about the VMP and related remote-sensing skills to a group of visiting students from the United States attending a wildlife course in the GFRR. Otherwise known as teaching ‘thicket transect techniques’.

True to form, the VMP team could not resist the opportunity to spread their own acquired knowledge to more people in an interactive way. The course was given over two full days and included explanation of the monitoring method, identification of tree species and illustration of how to take good herbarium samples. Furthermore, the basics of remote sensing were taught. And naturally, the course would not have been complete without getting hands a little dirty in the field.

The group of students came from diverse educational backgrounds and understandably not everybody could appreciate the splendour of crawling through dense thorny bush but all attendees thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to learn in the field. And riding their enthusiasm, they even spotted the usually shy (but aggressive) black rhino from quite close range. Not bad for a day’s work.