A volunteer's perspective - Claudia Lifton-Schwerner - In between earth and sky

Trevor Garrod of Tea Leaf Green sings about “living in between the earth and sky”.  While spending this past week in the pristine, 1,945 meter high Mariepskop Mountains, I felt as though I was doing just that.  The Mariepskop Mountains are an ecological hotspot with several endemic species living in its stunning forests.  It is an important area to protect; however, many years ago the government allowed the natural forests to be cut down in order to plant Pine and Eucalyptus trees for timber production.  Since neither Pine nor Eucalyptus trees are indigenous to the area, there has been a severe drop in the variation of species present in the areas of the mountain which have been altered.

 Since 2004, GVI has been doing research on the population of rodents present in both the altered and non-altered forests.  Rodents are an important part of the food chain, and are therefore a good species to study in order to indicate the health of an entire area.  By setting up an equal number of rodent traps in both altered and non-altered forests, GVI has proven that there is an obvious loss of biodiversity in the unnatural forests.  Through this research we hope to prove to the government that the unnatural forests are detrimental to the health of the eco-system, and therefore should be replanted with trees indigenous to the area.  I have never spent very much time learning about or working with rodents, so it was very interesting to learn about such an important part of the health of our environment.

While the research was very interesting, the thing that made this past week so special was the mountains themselves.  It was such a quiet, lovely get away with only eight people from the GVI team staying in small, wooden cabins.  We woke up to a dream-like view every morning, and ended the day with a spectacular sunset over the mountains every night.  In between trappings, we visited a river running through the forest and took advantage of the rope swing that had been set up by previous volunteers.  We ate dinner by candle light, followed by star gazing under the completely uninterrupted blackness of the sky.  It was an idyllic scene and an amazing experience.  

Claudia Lifton-Schwerner - GVI Volunteer Round the World Competition Winner

A volunteer's perspective - Claudia Lifton-Schwerner - In between earth and sky