Cape Town: Helderberg Nature Reserve temporarily closed! [update]

update (12 July 2022): The  Helderberg Nature Reserve is scheduled to re-open on  01 August 2022.

The City of Cape Town has announced that as a result of the recent wild fire, the Helderberg Nature Reserve will remain closed for the next month to assess the damage and determine which reinstatement measures are required. The fire damaged the Nature Reserve early Saturday morning (11 June 2022) and was contained Sunday morning (12 June 2022). The mopping up operations continued throughout Sunday until significant amounts of rain started falling in the Helderberg Nature Reserve during the early hours of Monday morning (13 June 2022). Approximately 280 hectares of the Nature Reserve has been burnt, however, ecologically, the fire has not had a negative impact as much of the veld was mature and due for a managed ecological burn. The Biodiversity Management Team of the City of Cape Town is currently assessing the damage to the reserve infrastructure, but can confirm that various benches, water bars on the trails and a portion of the boardwalk around the duck pond was destroyed by the fire.

The Helderberg Nature Reserve is located in Somerset West. It is owned and managed by the City of Cape Town with the support of the Friends of the Helderberg Nature Reserve. The Nature Reserve reaches up as far as the cliff faces and the peaks above the Helderberg Nature Reserve are managed by CapeNature.