Pick up Stompies

The drive takes a good few hours. It is hot in the bakkie and smoky. Izak is so very careful with his ‘stompies’ (cigarette butts). He uses a bottle with some water in it as his ashtray and explains to me the dangers of veld fires in these parts. I remember an embarrassing moment from my twenties when I was a smoker. I was shouted at by several farmers for casually tossing a cigarette into a veld without thinking, wanting to look cool and streetwise. Well, that backfired. Not literally, because luckily the stompie was retrieved and no harm was done. Even though it was extinguished, I cringe thinking of the fact that I gave so little consideration to mother earth. Izak reminds me that we can educate one another. Sometimes it is through our words and other times, like with Izak, it is through our actions. Anyway, I wanted to find out more and did some research. Did you know that about 90% of veld fires are started by humans and the other 10% are started by natural occurrences such as lightning?

‘Veld fires are a persistent problem in South Africa. They frequently cause emergencies, and often grow to disastrous proportions. At the same time, veld fires are natural – they occur as part of the normal process of events in grassland, woodlands and fynbos, and even sometimes in natural forests. They have occurred since time immemorial, caused naturally by lightning and, in the Cape Mountains, by falling rocks. The earliest humans began to use fire a million years ago, and modern humans have been using veld fires for hunting and for managing their environment for possibly hundreds of thousands of years. We continue to use fire in veld and forest, to manage grazing and habitats, and as a measure to help prevent uncontrolled fires.’
– The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry RSA