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| Area Conserved: |
| 10 ha |
| Wine District: |
| Stellenbosch |
| Owner / Contact Person: |
| Dirkie Morkel |
| Phone: |
| (021) 865 2055 |
| Website: |
| www.bellevue.co.za |
| Membership Date: |
| 27 October 2006 |
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Biodiversity highlights: Area conserved – 10ha.
Bellevue Estate has a large wetland area and 4 small natural areas that are highly conservation worthy fragments of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos and Swartland Shale Renosterveld - these are critically endangered vegetation types. The owner has decided to fence off these areas, remove the alien invasive species and ensure their proper conservation and management into the future. |
Bellevue Estate is located on the Bottelary Road, just outside Stellenbosch. It has been in the Morkel family for 4 generations and the current owner, Dirkie Morkel is on the Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) committee and very involved in the wine industry. Dirkie’s father, the late DJ Morkel, had a great love for veld flowers. Dirkie remembers how as a young school boy he would have to help his father over weekends to water proteas planted on the farm, which his father successfully cultivated. The late Mr Morkel created a colour slide collection of all the flowering species on the property and identified their species names. This is an excellent record of what species used to occur on Bellevue. Dirkie is keen to expand this slide collection and display it. After his father’s death, Dirkie planted a collection of fynbos species in his father’s memory including proteas, pincushions and leucadendrons.
Every year after harvest, Bellevue has made it a habit to go through the sections of natural habitat on the farm and remove invasive species such as Port Jackson. There is also a large wetland area on the farm which is well on its way to rehabilitating itself after it was once lightly ploughed many years ago.
When the BWI extension officer visited the farm in the spring of 2006, she was impressed with the variety of renosterveld and lowland fynbos species that were flowering and also excited about the conservation value of the 4 remaining natural areas on the farm which consist of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos and Swartland Shale Renosterveld. Despite their relatively small size (<10ha in total), they are highly conservation worthy because these particular lowland vegetation types are regarded as critically endangered, and because their species diversity and bulb component is very high. The Morkels have decided to fence off these areas, remove the alien invasive species and ensure their proper conservation and management into the future.
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