#MountainDispatch News Updates

OCTOBER 2018 TO JANUARY 2019

Another year of conservation complete and another has begun in earnest.

Tree planting is at a record high, as we turn brown degraded, open areas into a patchwork of indigenous trees. In decades to come, these will grow into rich forests, and with our partners we will be proud of our green slopes.

Elephants are now using the new one-way elephant gates in the Imenti Forest Reserve. Conscious that elephants were getting shut out of the Imenti Reserve once new fences were put in place, we worked with our partners on a way of letting them back in after long safaris to Samburu county. These gates are the very first of their kind… read more below!

In December, KWS officers and our MKT team leaders benefited from a scene of crime management and prosecution refresher run by KWS and funded by MKT.

As always, we thank our supporters and those who are there for us no matter what, protecting the mountain ecosystem and caring for the wildlife, forest and people as much as we do. The MKT team are passionate about their work and having this support just motivates us further to keep growing and keep making a significant impact.

Early last year, we bid a fond farewell to two of the original founding Trustees, Levi Wendo and Martin Forster, who retired from the Board. We thank them for their many years of service and dedication to the Trust and now welcome two new Directors, Sophie Kinyua and Robert Kariuki, to the team.

Susie Weeks, Executive Director.

Elephant Corridor hotspot fencing
Reinforcement to the corridor, including beehives, will begin in early 2019 to prevent fence breaking elephants moving out into the farmlands.

Mountain Bongo research and development
With a range of partners, we hope to develop plans to protect and reintroduce more bongo onto the mountain.

New base at Ragati Conservancy
Will be built to aid the bongo protection and cover an additional area of threatened forest with our partners, to expand the MKT reach to the southern edge of the mountain.

A Tribute to Mount Kenya – May 2019
Our UK Board will be hosting their first event ‘A tribute to Mount Kenya’ on the 16th May 2019 at The Conduit. Please contact uk for more information.

Base improvements for JWPT
A chilly place is the mountain be to live, therefore team bases will be clad to keep in the heat.

Mt Kenya Trail Run
A new event – watch this space!

Expansion of Community Health
16 new health mobilisers will be added to our team, bringing us up to 31 mobilisers in the field, reaching more patients and women in more remote locations.

Camphor used to be a magnificent part of the mountain canopy and ecosystem. Through time, selective logging removed up to eighty percent of the camphor on Mt Kenya. Even finding seeds and propagating the seedlings is extremely rare.

But our Forestry Officer, Joseph Ngaira, managed to find some! Camphor seedlings were discovered at a small group in near Embu, and these were collected and planted, alongside our partners at FOECT at Ruthumbi forest station. A total of 10,000 indigenous seedlings were planted at the site and of these 1,506 camphor seedlings were planted.

Ocotea usambarensis is a large tree, 3.5-36 (max. 45) m high with a spreading crown and stem diameter of (min.1.25) 3.75-9.5 m. Bole straight, slightly fluted, buttressed at the base, unbranched for 9-15 m. Bark grey or reddish brown, much fissured, granular, scaly and flaking off in small round patches or thick squares; slash white or faintly pink with a characteristic sweet scent.

ECOLOGY: O. usambarensis is found in diverse mountain forest associations, the so-called ocotea forest. The tree is distributed throughout East Africa and common in wetter forests. Where it occurs naturally, there is a distinct dry season of 2-3 months, but with mist or clouds present throughout the year. It is found mainly in Kenya and Tanzania and sparsely in Uganda. In Kenya, it occurs on the moist slopes of the Aberdares, Mt Kenya, Taita Hills and Nyambene; it was once a dominant tree in the wet forests of these areas but is now rare everywhere. The trees on Mt Kenya were harvested for firewood, charcoal but mainly timber used for furniture railways, joinery, panelling and building.

Batian Level Donors ($50,000+)
Minara Foundation, CHASE Africa, International Tree Foundation, The US Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of the Nairobi Sailing and Sub Aqua Club, Friends Of Environment Conservation Trust, African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Eden Wildlife Trust.

Nelion Level Donors ($25,000+)
Timaflor, Tropic Air, Tusk Trust via the Safaricom Marathon, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Hugh Sloane, Zurich Zoo, Disney: Reverse the Decline, World Conservation Society.

Lenana Level ($10,000+)
European Outdoor Conservation Association, Thin Green Line Foundation, Elephant Cooperation, BATUK, International Elephant Foundation, The Featherbys, Anonymous, Safarilink, Dormans.

Coryndon Level (<$10,000 & in kind)
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, The Rufford Foundation, Bunson Travel, Cookswell Jikos, Mountain Club of Kenya, Kisima Farm,
Marania Farm, Ol Donyo Farm, Steve Strong, Friends of Africa International

Thank you to everyone for visiting our tree nursery at Turaco Farm.

Our partners: We wouldn’t be able to keep up the good work without our most important supporting & operational partners. These include
The Kenya Wildlife Service, The Kenya Forest Service, Rhino Ark, Kisima Farm, Marania Farm, Tropic Air, The Woodcock Family, Greystones Development Company, Borana Conservancy, African Ascents and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.

Special thanks to Anne Tissier for her time and support.