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Letters to the Editor Parks for whose benefit? Wanted – social walkers Restricted canyon access Help for NPWS pig control Are some animals less equal? Editor : Glyn Mather

Parks for whose benefit?

In response to the letter entitled "Visual Pollution" in the December edition of the National Parks Journal, I would just like to say how profoundly disturbing I find it that such a person seems to think that the national parks are there for his sole benefit and the benefit of those wealthy enough to afford a plane flight over national parks. The narrow-mindedness of Adrian Cooper has genuinely surprised me. How can those people walking through a public area like a national park be classed as pollution? 

I’m sure many people think the same way that I do in regard to this issue. People enjoying the natural beauty of the national parks from the ground in a peaceful and non-pollutive manner should not be seen as visual pollution, but instead should be encouraged so as to broaden public awareness with respect to the issues concerning these natural wonders. 

I am not trying to say that the national parks should be used only by us ground-dwellers because then how would we enjoy such wonders as Kakadu in the wet. I just ask that people like Adrian Cooper plant his feet on the ground, walk through a national park and experience the serenity and biodiversity close up. 

Maybe then he will think differently, instead of relating power lines and fire trails to the ‘intrinsic’ beauty of the parks.

Sally King 
Hornsby Heights, 14 December 1999

Wanted – social walkers

We are both members of NPA and we eagerly antici- pate the arrival of the newsletter. We write in the hope that you will publish our letter and assist us to make contact with other people with similar interests as ourselves. 

We have participated in a few walks but find ourselves embarrassingly slow by comparison with other walkers. This is partly by choice as we enjoy the bush for its own sake, and partly because we are not as fit or as young as a lot of the people we have met so far. We like a walk to be challenging but the pleasure we get from walking in the bush comes from the journey, not the arrival. We are equipped to walk out overnight or to car camp, and are restricted to weekends as we both work full time. 

While not gourmets, we are also keen cooks and like to finish a good day's walk with a good meal. We would like to meet other members who enjoy the bush, and enjoy the preparation and sharing of a good meal and a quiet drink after a strenuous walk. The outcome we are hoping for is the addition to the activities calendar of a more social and less physical grading than that currently classified as ‘easy’. 

We may be contacted on (02) 9971 2909 or e- mail maxwill@mt.net.au

Max Willoughby & Kay Hamilton 
17 October 1999

Restricted canyon access

I would like to point out to readers that access to many canyons in the Blue Mountains will be seriously restricted in the near future. 

Because the Wollemi Wilderness Area was declared early in 1999, the NPWS is legally bound to erect locked gates on many of the roads into the Wollemi. 

For example, the road that gives access to the Hole-in-the-Wall Canyon is to be closed near Newnes Forest, meaning an extra 2 km walk each way to approximately 30 canyons. The roads to Galah, Surefire, Heart Attack, Dumbano and Yarramun canyons are also to be closed, adding approximately 5 km each way. 

Mountain bikes will be permitted on some of the locked roads, since they will be maintained for fire-control purposes. But overall this large group of canyons will become much more difficult to access. Most people who have enjoyed doing canyons in a day trip from Sydney will be forced to go to other canyons - such as Claustral and Wollangambe - some of which are overcrowded even now. 

The rangers at Blackheath believe that the gates will be in place for the 2000-2001 canyon season. Objections to the closures - which canyoners expressed in response to the Draft Plan of Management for the Wilderness Area - seem to have been ignored. 

The wilderness lobby has been doing a great job for many years pressing for more wilderness areas to be declared. Perhaps in this instance they have gone a little bit too far.

Rick Jamieson 
Grose Vale, 17 December 1999

Help for NPWS pig control

Please report all sightings of wild pigs and/or wild pig shooters to National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers, with date, time, location and vehicle registration numbers where appropriate, especially in Kosciuszko National Park, over the summer season. Pig shooting in national parks is an illegal activity involving guns, dogs, illegal 4WD access and resultant damage to the environment. It disrupts the attempts of rangers to get rid of the pigs because hunters shoot at selected pigs and scatter the pigs, whereas NPWS staff are trying to locate and contain the herds and shoot or remove all the pigs.

Marion Woof 
Killara 14 November 1999

Are some animals less equal?

This is to express a crisis of confidence in NPA’s activities. When I hear a NPWS speaker describing how they shoot cats at an Australian Plants Society meeting, and see neighbourhoods without any animals, native or foreign, I wonder if NPA is just keeping native fauna to its own parks. 

Living without native animals and trees in suburbia can only harm the appreciation which I used to think was NPA’s aim. 

Cats have supplied the link, and are certainly better than no animals at all. 

What can we do for the future in creating pockets of wildlife within easy reach of everyone? Surely we should put something back of all the beautiful ecology which used to be here, that our present commercial greed has destroyed.

Gwendoline Bell 
Brighton-le-Sands, 21 December 1999