THE TREE SOCIETY OF ZIMBABWE | 70 YEARS LATER & STILL GOING STRONG

The original idea for the Tree Society came from a Mr J.B. Richards in 1949 who, together with five other enthusiastic and committed residents keen to learn more about indigenous trees, drafted the constitution and obtained support from the Mayor of Salisbury now Harare. The first meeting was held in February 1950 with the Mayor at Town House, where more than 100 people enrolled as members. An older member remembers early meetings in hats and gloves with the Mayor and Mayoress in Greenwood Park. Currently, the Tree Society has just over 100 members. There is also a Facebook page which has over 4500 members. Membership is open to all who have an interest in trees and wish to learn more about them. Informal monthly expeditions are organised to places such as the National Botanic Gardens, suburbs around Harare and the nearby national parks. This is to get members to learn about many different indigenous tree species. Before the Covid pandemic, weekend trips were organised in far off places within Zimbabwe – e.g. Eastern Highlands.

To bring together people who are interested in trees.

To collect, and encourage collection of, all forms of information relating to trees and to publish it both in a monthly newsletter and on the Tree Society’s Facebook page.

To create an awareness amongst the public of the importance to human existence of trees in our landscape.

To promote protection of the indigenous woody vegetation of Zimbabwe and to foster its proper management.

To co-operate with any organisation that has any of the above objectives.

In 1959 an arboretum was developed at Lake McIlwaine (now Lake Chivero) and opened in September 1960. The idea was to plant colourful trees so that boats coming across the lake would see a swathe of colour. In those days there was nothing there and one member once remarked that there wasn’t even a bush to go behind. Although the arboretum has been neglected over the years, the indigenous trees have regenerated and, because it is within a National Park, have largely been protected from fire and firewood collection.

As well as work on the arboretum, members made concerted efforts to eliminate weed invasions such as Mauritius Thorn (Caesalpinia decapetala), Cedrela (Toona ciliata) and Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) from the Binga Swamp Forest near Arcturus. Work was also done at the Epworth Balancing Rocks and in support of the Mukuvisi Woodlands.

By the 1970s a pattern of monthly outings was in place, sometimes alternating with lectures and films, and the monthly newsletter gradually became more botanical. On the 20th April 1980, the Society became the Tree Society of Zimbabwe and the first edition of the new newsletter called “Tree Life” was issued - the latest is “Tree Life 490”. From the 1980s the Society saw increasing activity with regular outings. The tree mapping and recording of the locality of all the tree species in the country kindly done by Maureen Silva Jones also started during that period. This activity has now been taken over by the Flora of Zimbabwe website.  These are important developments that moved the Society on from being purely recreational.

In recent years tree labelling has taken place in several sites, tree lists should be available at the entrance gates for Ewannrigg Botanical Gardens, National Botanical Garden and Mukuvisi Woodlands. These lists are for sale to the general public but are distributed to members at no cost. Details of all the tree labelling activities can be found in the Tree Society of Zimbabwe website. This website has a lot of information on many topics e.g. White Jacarandas and Nurseries that sell indigenous trees. It also has all the newsletters going back many, many years. The latest monthly “Tree Life” is being added every month, albeit one month old on purpose – of course members receive their newsletter as soon as it’s ready to be distributed. Additional material is being added to the website every now and again.