Wildlife Enthusiasts Receive Assistance in a Timber-Frame Building Project

The Wild Life For All is a unique charity in England that unites non-paid professionals and spends all donations on genuine needs such as buying land for nature. The charity manages their own nature reserves in Sussex, England and South Africa.

Established in 2002 the Komsberg became one of the biggest private nature reserves in South Africa. Its huge space of 125 sq km is an important conservation hotspot for biodiversity with numerous unique plants and animals. Some of the animals were thought to be extinct. Springbok in the karoo, kudu, gemsbok, and red hartebeest were re-introduced here in addition to blue wildebeest and black wildebeest which almost went extinct in the late 19th century. They have re-introduced Burchell's zebra to Komsberg that has been absent since 1811. However, they recognize one of their biggest achievements is the re-introduction of the endangered Cape mountain zebra in October 2010. You can learn more about Komsberg by visiting their website www.wildlifeforall.org

Of course, this massive project demands serious efforts of volunteers to remove miles of internal camp fencing left from ex-sheep farms so that larger animals can roam freely. Additional projects include erecting new perimeter fencing 2.4m height, make gates, adapt waterholes from sheep use to wildlife and much more. Several drought summers in a row causes lots of extra work like supporting “food aid” for the animals and refilling waterholes.

Before traveling to Komsberg, volunteers take training in another nature reserve called The Oasis located in Mid Sussex. Recently a charity team decided to construct a building here dedicated to public education, charity meetings and staff training.

In order to provide the wood for the building, they felled about 20 non-native trees on their land. Most of the trees were leylandii (Leyland Cypress) along with other conifers and a few oak logs.

 

 

“I was approached by the charity looking for assistance with milling some timber,” says David Biggs, the Wood-Mizer UK manager. “I visited their site and have agreed that I will take a sawmill to them and mill their timber.”

 

 

Wood-Mizer’s LT40 mobile sawmill with a 33hp diesel engine was a perfect match for this task. The sawmill isn’t heavy and can be towed carefully to the site without any soil damage. It can be installed on uneven surfaces that don’t affect cutting quality.

“Unfortunately the only site I could set up the mill was on quite a slope, continues David. “This produced a few issues with moving the timber as it all had to be done by hand.”

Immediately six volunteers came to assist David. “They made for a perfect job”, he shares.

 

 

“I spent a day and a half and produced a lot of cladding boards from the soft wood and construction timbers from the oak,” shares David.

Jonathan, one of the charity team members involved in the project, tells more about a future construction project. “The building will be 7 meters long by 6 meters wide and consist of one large room of 42 square meters. There will be ten of our staff involved in different aspects of its construction. We will also get help and expert advice from a couple of local builders.”

 

 

“Our team was very impressed with the efficiency of the Wood-Mizer sawmill. David Biggs was extremely helpful and knowledgeable - a real pleasure to work with,” says Johnathan. “Thanks for all your help David - we couldn't have done it without you!”

“I was really pleased to be able to help with processing the timber and I look forward to visiting next year to see the construction in progress,” said David Biggs.