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 January-February 2014 | |
Friends of Karura Forest Newsletter
Community Forest Association
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18,000
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The monthly record number of visitors to Karura Forest: February 2014. More than half of Karura's visitors are Kenyan citizens.
Numbers of Monthly Karura Visitors
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| Where else in Nairobi... |
... can off-road bikers find safe, secure, matatu-free rides under a forest canopy? |
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Ten More Bicycles Available for Hire
| By popular demand, FKF has ploughed bike rental takings into purchasing 10 more bikes for visitors.
Plus, we have engaged a bike specialist mechanic on a maintenance counteract to make certain our bikes-for-hire are in top shape and clean of Karura mud for the next rider. Only 500/= for 2 hours Bike helmets are mandatory. Please stay on the designated bike trails: a dedicated 12 km bike circuit now open in the north. |
| Donor Corner |   The profusion of new signage in the forest requires a special thank-you to B.R. Devani of Pelican Signs Ltd, who over the past three years, has been providing a generous CSR donation to the forest. At every forest entrance, every trail junction, and in-between you can see Pelican handiwork to help visitors navigate. Thank you!
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| Works Corner |
The volunteers who make up the Friends of Karura and their team of Scouts, Tree-Minders and Fundis are at work in the forest each and every day...
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New bridge under construction over Karura River to open path between No. 12a and 33. Bikers take note.
Great job, KFK Fundi Simon Munga
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Clearing Eucalypts: Chantal Mariotte
makes a point to Huruma women's team
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 | FKF-KFS team collecting rocks for
Gitathuru River bridge gabians |
 | | FKF Tree Minder Mbugua waters Memorial treelings |
 | Cristina Croze-Boelcke & Esther Wagweyi
check the books |
 | | Loading cleared Cyprus logs for milling into timber for further works |
...and so on...
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| Avian Moments | |
More than 200 species...
...can be spotted with patience and a quiet tread. Here are a handful of some residents.
In the canopy...
 | | Silvery-cheeked Hornbills courting |
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Noteworthy Events
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Karura hosts important environmental, social and educational events. A sample...
GERTRUDES GARDEN CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
TEAM BUILDING
11 January: By special arrangement on the
vlei near Lily Lake and Junction 5
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MITUL SHAH WESTGATE MEMORIAL
TREE TENDING AND WATERING
12 January: Community gathering at Westgate Memorial site to tend and water trees in memory of Mitul Shah and other victims
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QUEEN'S BATON RELAY
13th January: Kenya's 1st Olympics Gold Medalist Kipchoge Keino and the UK High Commissioner Christian Turner lead the charge in the Queen's Baton Relay ushering in the 2014 Commonwealth Games
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SHARKS GATE OPENING
25 January: Former service entrance 'Gate C' off Kiambu Road was opened for weekend access. It is a point of check-in and payment and has toilet facilities.
It opens the northern section of Karura to a 12-kilometre designated bike track and dogs-of-leash zone.
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| Dogs, head north! | 
The opening of Sharks Gate and the new bridge over the Karura River between Junctions 12a and 33, have given easier access to dogs and their owners to the northern part of the forest, which is currently an off-leash areas A new map can be seen online here. Please Read Dog Guidelines |
| PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP & RESIDENCY REQUIRED | |
POLITE NOTICE
Documentary proof of Kenya Citizenship or Residency will be required to be shown at the gate in order to qualify for Citizen or Resident entry fees.
'RESIDENTS' are defined as non-citizen persons living in Kenya. Non-citizen persons living in other East African Community countries (Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda & Burundi) are considered to be NON-RESIDENTS for the purpose of the Karura Forest entry fee schedule.
Thanks for your cooperation!
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| Get a Receipt! | |
Please make sure you sign-in at the gates and get a receipt for entry fees and maps.
Security and maintenance in the forest depends on revenue from events and gate-takings.
Your gate fees help maintain the security fence and pay the Karura Scouts.
Please retain and be prepared to show your receipts to FKF Scouts on patrol.
Many thanks!
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| Newsletter Archive | |
Missing an issue?
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Five years on... We're doing very well, but we're not totally out of the woods, as it were.
Keeping covetous land grabbers from Karura continues to be a challenge. Of course, the completion of the electric perimeter fence shocked those who already possessed illegal titles inside the forest. You will recall that Prof Wangari Maathai almost lost her life here in 1999 fighting off hired goons and armed policemen who were there to stop any conservation efforts to protect the forest.
FKF and the Kenya Forest Service are jointly determined to protect every inch of the 1,041 hectares of Karura Forest. We have recently embarked on the development of a little corner of the forest in the northern part west of Kiambu road, known as 'Duck Farm block'. It had been grabbed, and only a small one hectare portion is left where FKF and KFS intend to establish the Karura Forest Gardens for public and family events such as weddings and garden parties.
And the ugly ghosts of land grabbers have reappeared again. KFS is being sued by a company from the British Virgin Islands that claims to own three plots totalling 4.5 ha. The petitioner is seeking court injunctions for KFS to remove the perimeter fence and to stop 'interfering' with its plots. FKF, having entered into a contractual forest management agreement with KFS to erect the fence and protect and conserve the forest, is seeking legal advice as to the necessary course of action.
I shall be appealing to all of you as friends of Karura Forest to stay united in the struggle to keep the forest intact and to ensure, as Prof Wangari Maathai would tell us, that we do the best we can to protect and conserve Karura.
Keep hope alive by coming to the forest.
Prof Karanja Njoroge
Chairman, Friends of Karura Forest
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Five Years On...
FKF Chair Karanja Njoroge reflects on
the past five years, and the future
It is five years since the establishment of FKF and the acceptance of our Community Forest Association as a major player in the protection, conservation and management of Karura Forest Reserve. The forest was opened to the public with a well-attended inauguration walk down the Family Trail on 16 May 2009.
 | | Family Trail Opening |
In 2009, we were treading on new ground, walking paths that no one had taken before. The concept of community involvement in forest management - known as Participatory Forest Management - had been made into law by way of the Kenya Forest Act of 2005. It was barely implemented when FKF was founded four years later.
FKF's core membership of passionate supporters, primarily residents of communities adjacent to the forest, engaged with the newly established Kenya Forest Service (KFS) to protect and conserve Karura. With gusto and determination the FKF Board secured corporate donations to fence the main block of the forest.
An MOU signed between FKF and KFS for proper forest governance and joint management, including: securing the forest with a perimeter electric fence; establishing a cadre of forest scouts recruited from surrounding communities to patrol the forest; and engaging professionals to ensure the integrity of the fence.
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FKF-KFS Joint Management Agreement signed
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Given the historical perceptions of the forest as a no-go zone, it was at first difficult to get people to trust our security measures. FKF received major support from G4S Security Services to provide gratis security personnel at all forest entrances, standby fire and ambulatory services, and to second a Fence and Infrastructure Manager. In addition, KFS deployed eleven armed rangers.
From then on things changed for Karura. Every month we saw the numbers of visitors increase dramatically, from fewer than 500 visitors a month towards the end of 2009 to a monthly average of nearly 13,000 for the past six months, with an impressive peak of almost 18,000 in January (see graph in sidebar).
 The forest has become a haven of tranquility and peace for Nairobi. On weekends, hundreds of people make it into Karura. The new picnic site opposite the KFEET Centre is hosting more families as part of their activities in Karura. We intend to do another picnic site in Sigiria near the New Muthaiga entrance (Gate F on the Map) where a new obstacle challenge course is almost ready. The course will be launched for public use in the near future
In the meantime FKF secured the entire forest with electric fencing thanks to East African Breweries, the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW) and the George Drew Foundation. We have improved infrastructure for jogging, cycling and walking. FKF and KFS have also agreed on a policy of silvilculture to systematically remove exotics particularly old plantation trees, and replant with indigenous species (see below). Already over 10 hectares have been reforested under this initiative.
Kenyans' hope for the long term security of Karura is growing daily, like newly-planted seedings in the coming rains.
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Reforestation: Two Approaches
Replacing Exotic with Indigenous Tree Species is a
Top Management Challenge
FKF and the Kenya Forest Service have embarked on an ambitious programme of replacing exotic plantation trees with indigenous species from the 25% of Karura that is still natural. We are trying two approaches - clear-cutting and surgical clearing - depending on the density of plantation trees and the number of shaded and dwarfed indigenous treelings that are ready to 'take off' once the canopy is cleared.
 | | FKS Director D.K. Mbugua, FKF Chair Karanja Njoroge and their teams meeting on-site to discuss 'forest enrichment' |
In the old Eucalyptus plantation sites, clear-cutting seems to be the way to go. More than 1,000 trees have been virtually cleared from both sides of the little swamp along the upper Turaco Creek opposite KFEET (see panorama at bottom of page. Under the Eucalyps there are few small local trees, but there are scattered large individuals that have managed to thrive amongst the aliens. We are careful to protect them from damage during the felling.
 | | They just keep coming back |
The challenge is now to keep the cut stumps from coppicing. Eucalyps are astonishingly tenacious, and we find little reddish shoots emerging from stumps that have been totally debarked to well below soil level. Limited trials with herbicides have been abandoned for environmental reasons, plus they don't seem to work anyway. We have managed to root the stumps totally out by providing the KFS JCB backhoe digger. The stumps are being recycled into charcoal.
Meanwhile, more than 2,000 young indigenous trees have been re-planted thanks to donations from corporate and individual donors.
 Then, along the Family Trail not far from Junction 2, you will have seen a pilot plot of surgical clearing in a stand of mainly Himalayan Cyprus (Cupressus torulosa) that was planted in the early 1960s. Among the tightly packed cyprus is a promising re-growth of many indigenous treelings, just waiting to get a good dose of sun and less root competition for water and nutrients. This approach requires a skilled team of specialist tree cutters who are able to combine amazing strength and agility to lop the trees off from the top down, with each piece being carefully lowered to the forest floor avoiding the little indigenous specimens.
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Tree surgeon at work
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The cut trees are either left in seven-foot lengths for subsequent milling into timber or cut into firewood sizes if they are too small to make planks or are too rotten at the core, as were nearly half of the old cyprus stand, due to being neglected for so long. The smaller Eucalyps are cut into lengths suitable for building poles. FKF and KFS are keeping some of the timber and poles for future projects and selling the rest to pay for the tree-cutters and casual workers who come from self-help groups from the the surrounding informal communities.
So far the operation, which is part of the long-term joint FKF-KFS Karura Forest Management Plan, is paying for itself. But it does take intensive overseeing by FKF volunteers, especially in organising burning of non-saleable waste and organising of re-planting.
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Karura Archaeology
Team from National Museum Probes Forest's Deep History
 | | MNK at work in big cave |
Did you know that Karura forest had friends as far back as 4,500 years ago and possibly much earlier? Next time you take a walk down to the Mau-Mau caves in the Karura River valley, check out the posters showing the findings of the excavation work carried out in them by a team of archaeologists from the National Museums of Kenya in 2011 and make your walk a learning exercise!
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Obsidian cutting tools
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Some of the obsidian tools originating from the Naivasha Crater Lake cave dwellers have been carbon-dated at 4,500 years old, while others have been identified as Middle Stone Age, between 50,000 and 300,000 years old.
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Ancient pots and pans
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The team also found pottery shards with interesting designs in the caves, showing possible origins of the inhabitants and patterns of trade.
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Old animal remains
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Bones and teeth give an idea of the fauna that inhabited the forest or nearby hunting grounds. Finds include domestic livestock as well as bush pigs, who still inhabit the forest, plus roan antelope and dik-diks, who must have been hunted from the surrounding grasslands.
Examination of pollen grains found at different levels trace the history of flora and climate at different periods. Shifts between grass-domination and woody vegetation give clear indications that Karura has experience many signification wet-dry fluctuations.
From Karura rainfall data, it seems that we might be entering into another wetter period (see Sep-Dec 2013 Newsletter).
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Brick History Mystery
More Recent Past Clues Found
The unsolved mystery continues: who inhabited the old buildings and made use of the 260 m borehole near the Westgate Memorial (see previous newsletters here and here)?
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A special brick
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Who lived there? When and for how long? And what were they doing there? And what's with all the bricks?
So far, we have unearthed some snippets from old books and a few living memories:
From the Pioneer Scrapbook: Reminiscences of Kenya 1890 to 1968 edited by Elsbeth Huxley and Arnold Curtis, in a section on 'The Watkins of Wispers Farm', Veronica Hughes states that there was ca 1914 a 'charming Kentish couple of the old variety' [whatever that might have meant], Mr & Mrs Tom Young, who had a brick and tile works that supplied the house the Watkins eventually built. Today, Karura shares a border with the old Wispers in the northern portion near Wangari's Corner. Ms Hughes goes on: "There was no road to Wispers and this was the first task... A bridge had to be made over the Karura River, and another over the swamp near what is now the Shell Sports Club." Of course the club is now the KFEET centre, and the bridge the one you walk over on the way to Junction 12.
Then, from Elizabeth Watkins, in her biography of her father, Oscar From Africa: The Biography of O.F. Watkins, there is a similar tale: "Only a mile away from the chosen site [of Wispers] lay a brick and tile works run by Kentish man. A Kentish brick house it would be, but to get the bricks to the farm she had to bridge the Karura River."
A surveyor, who has known Kenya since pre-independence, recalls that the site was occupied sometime between the wars by a gentleman with the curious name of Mr. Kiln, who, apart from being the Forester, raised dogs and burnt bricks.
One of the Friends of Karura board members recalls attending a local primary school with the daughters of the Rutheford (or 'Rutherford') family that apparently lived on or near the site in the 1960s. Mr. Rutheford was recalled to be of military mien: khaki shorts and knee socks. Perhaps a colonial forester's garb?
Whoever lived on the site, clearly one or more of them made bricks at one time or another. Given the physical and historical involvement of bricks in most of the tales, FKF has approached the British Brick Society to shed some light, and the Secretary of the society has promulgated the query to the membership.
Meanwhile, the Secretary observed that "...the Bulldog mark is very striking. It is particularly intricate for a trade marking - I have never seen one like it before."
 The meaning of the initials 'NBT&PW' on the reverse side of the Bulldog Brand brick was discovered by one of our Facebook followers, who hunted down reference to the licensing of the Nairobi Brick, Tile and Pipe Works Ltd in the 12 August 1925 issue of the Kenya Gazette. You can see for yourself at Google Books.
If any reader can shed more light on any aspect of Karura history, please let us know at info@karurafriends.org or by letter to the address at the bottom of the Newsletter.
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Un-Seasonal Rains?
Good February Rains Not Uncommon
As the rest of the world continues to be battered by extreme weather events, Karura Forest experienced a more pleasant anomaly: good rain in February, 86 mm (3.4 in), nearly twice the 70 year February average of 45 mm.
In contrast, January's 11mm was less than 20% of the long-term average. So the relief in February was particularly marked, and welcomed.
Actually, the driest dry-season months - January, February and July - also tend to be the most variable. The graph below shows monthly standard deviations around the mean, a measure of variability. A high value indicates a variable month, irrespective of the amount of rain. A low value signifies more predictable rain: it is invariably wet in April and November.
So, it's not too surprising that some years we get the occasional 'grass rains' in 'dry-season' months, a pleasant relief from dryness and high temperatures.
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Some people may find the clearing of Eucalyptus plantation along the Turaco Creek swamp somewhat draconian. It certainly looks messy in the early stages. Let us say three things in mitigation.
First, although Eucalypts may be be a profitable woodlot choice, they take a heavy toll on local flora, fauna and water resources. The leaves mulching into the soils as well as the droppings from insects that eat the leaves leave the soil toxic to the seedlings of other species. Their inherent medicinal toxicity combined with the monoculture nature of their stands reduces local biodiversity.
The other ecological downside is that Eucalypts are notoriously thirsty trees. Indeed, they are famously used to help drain wetlands. Can you think of a worse species to have growing along a swamp you wish to rehabilitate?
Secondly, the products (poles, firewood and timber for milling) are either being stockpiled for use in further development of Karura's infrastructure (like the new bike-and-foot bridge over the Karura River) or being sold to local traders to help cover costs.
And lastly, if the pilot clearing turns out not to produce the results we anticipate - a revitalised swampy wetland surrounded by a healthy stand of mixed indigenous trees - we shall cease, and try something else.
So, please bear with us and give the next couple of rainy seasons a chance to show what we can do for Karura.
Sincerely,
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The Board of Friends of Karura Forest
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 | | Turaco Creek swamp liberated from Eucalyptus. Watch the indigenous species come back with the rains... |
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Join the Friends of Karura Forest
Membership is open to all persons, organisations and corporations who support the FKF mission to protect, manage and enhance the Karura Forest Reserve.
Members enjoy reduced Annual Pass fees: click here to s ee the types of membership and view rates.
You can sign up at the KFEET (Karura Forest Environment Education Trust) Centre (the former BP-Shell Sports Club in the main forest), or stop by the FKF secretariat office in Muthaiga (address below).
Newsletter photos © Harvey Croze unless otherwise attributed.
KARURA FOREST - SECURE, SAFE, SERENE
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