©2009 Full Circle Magazine.
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September 2009 Vol6 No9
Bay while applying for every environmental job
opportunity she could. Her drive and
determination won her the position of Assistant
Project Manager of Working with Water in Table
Mountain National Park. After a year she was
interviewed for the position of Project Manager
and won the appointment.
Her role centres largely on alien plant clearing
in the Southern Section of the Park, by training
unemployed people in adjacent communities,
namely, Ocean View, Masiphumelele and
Redhill, and using them to achieve the primary
goals of the Programme (poverty-relief and
conservation of our natural environment). It
involves lots of fieldwork and walking, setting out
blocks to be cleared, site-checks and training.
There is, however, another very important side
to Jaclyn’s job to which her bright, engaging
personality is well suited. She co-ordinates
social-awareness days each year in and around
the section for which she is responsible. Her
programmes cover such diverse subjects as
drug-abuse; HIV/Aids-awareness; vehicle-
safety; and Women’s Day, as well as
environmental-awareness days such as
Weedbuster Week and Arbour Day. She likes to
explain the importance of clearing alien invasive
plants in terms of water-conservation and fire-
control. She offers prizes such as caps and
jackets that people can hold onto and wear with
pride in their community to display their
achievements.
The only negative experience Jaclyn has had
was when she began with Working for Water. “I
was working with proud cultural men who were
unused to taking instructions from any woman,
let alone a young brown woman.” However, she
treated them firmly but with respect and, in turn,
earned theirs. She enjoys the challenge of
working with people, whether they are Park staff
or residents of the communities around the Park.
Jaclyn would like to manage a nature reserve
at some time in the future and will begin
studying for a B. Tech in Nature Conservation
next year. She enjoys camping and hiking, which
are also a large part of the job, and loves quiet
little areas in the Park where she can go to relax
and read.
Jaclyn is a deep-thinker and likes the fact that
she is contributing to the future well-being of the
Park. “I love that everything I do is making a
mark, and that in future people can come along
and enjoy a preserved environment!”
Ruth-Mary Fisher – Earth System Scientist
Southfield
Ruth-Mary grew up in one of South Africa’s
most historic and culturally significant sites, the
Moravian Mission Station of Genadendal. As
significant as her home is to her, she wanted to
prove that people can achieve anything they
want, even if they do come from a small town.
She took her teacher’s advice of “jy moet oor die
Steg kom” meaning she should seek a life on
the other side of the River which runs through
the town of Genadendal.
“I didn’t choose this career,” Ruth-Mary
reveals, “it chose me! I received a bursary to do
a BSc. Ed. to become a teacher but realised
teaching wasn’t for me. I switched to a straight
BSc because I enjoyed Geography at school.
Then an opportunity came for me to do post
graduate work in the water quality of rivers.
There after Ruth-Mary earned her MSc
through a Water Research Commission
funded research project at the University of
the Western Cape.
A job advert for an Earth System Scientist at
SANParks was posted to her by one of her
former supervisors. The job took her to the
Rondevlei office of the Garden Route Node of
SANParks’ Scientific Services for two years
before moving back to Cape Town. Presently
she works at the Cape Research Centre, the
Cape Node of SANParks’ Scientific Services,
in Tokai.
Her job involves research on the geomorph-
ology of the area, soil erosion, soil sensitivity
analyses, estuary sedimentation dynamics
and river health assessments. She works from
Tsitsikamma National Park in the east up to
West Coast National Park in the west.
Ruth-Mary enjoys being able to go out into
the field and see and experience new things.
“It’s very rewarding to have studied the
processes and see them happening naturally,”
she confides.
Ruth-Mary hasn’t experienced any
discriminatory behaviour in SANParks, but
“being a woman in this field it is important to
understand it is a very physical job. There is
nobody to carry equipment for you and you
need to pitch in with the launching and
landing of the boats.” On the positive side “it’s
not difficult work and it develops your sense of
independence and self-reliance because you
do so much fieldwork on your own.”
An unexpected drawback to the job is the
fact that Ruth-Mary is unable to speak about
the job to her family and friends as most of
them just don’t understand what she does.
“My friends also thought it was strange that I
drove a bakkie when I started working. I had
to explain that I need to take a small row boat
and equipment with me when I did research in
the parks”
Danielle Bowen – Section Ranger Marine
Unit, Fish Hoek
Durban-born Danielle always loved the
outdoors and environment and didn’t want a
job that would have stuck her indoors all day.
She got her National Diploma in Nature
Conservation before doing a B. Tech in Nature
Conservation. In November 2008 she saw a
SANParks advert, applied for the job, and was
one of two new rangers appointed to the
Marine Unit.
The job focuses mainly on law-enforce-ment,
permit-checking and size-compliance,
especially of crayfish. Patrols are conducted
on foot, by vehicle or by boat, as called for by
each situation. Based at the Signal School
above Simon’s Town, the Marine Unit has to
tow its boats to wherever they are needed.
“We’re looking for moorings, possibly at
Muizenberg and Sea Point,” Danielle explains.
The Unit also conducts research, and plays
an educational role by giving presentations to
school groups and taking them into the field.
“Crayfish season is chaos,” Danielle says.
“Most people comply with the 80mm-size rule
but a lot of people say, ‘Well it’s only a couple
of millimetres short.’ But 1mm less is too short
and illegal and has to be put back.”
Encountering so many potentially conflictive
situations could be hazardous work for a
woman but Danielle explains that her
experience so far has shown that poachers
and/or illegal fishermen usually vent their
anger and frustration at the men, and not at
the women, in the Marine Unit.
“It is very rewarding when the public praise
us for doing a great job but it also gets very
frustrating when we miss a shipment and
poachers get away. We just don’t have enough
manpower to tackle the job as thoroughly as
we would like to. There are 22 of us in the unit
and we have three boats.”
In her spare time Danielle hangs out with her
friends and would like to get into archery. “But
it is very expensive,” she says. In the
meantime she enjoys shooting handguns at
the navy range in Klaver Valley, reading and
painting.
