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Will your feet be the end of me?

16/7/2021

7 Comments

 
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When it comes to walking tracks, it's not all about humans, writes Julie Thomas. We’ve taken more than our share already.
By Julie Thomas
 
THE push and pull of nature versus development is a recurring theme in our region. As Leticia Laing shows in her article on the proposed Yallock-Bulluk trail, Parks are for Everyone, the escalating impact by people is a continuing source of distress in the community.
 
A walk is good. The designers dream of an iconic walk like Cape to Cape and those at Wilsons Prom. But these are through huge tracts of bushland.

​Bass Coast is not the Prom. If we are going to have thousands more walkers, it has to be done differently here. A look at the map in Leticia's article shows the desperately thin strip of land which remains for wildlife in this area. If they are disturbed here, where can they go? Nowhere.
When referring to wildlife, the media usually shows a picture of a koala. This is because they are big and fluffy and tweak our heart-strings. And of course, they deserve our protection. But it is the unseen microbes and the insects, fungi and tiny plants, ugly things and the rotten fallen timber in which they live, which are the most important – and usually forgotten.
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They are tiny, unattractive, hidden. But they are critical because they form the essential diet for the things we do see, like beautiful birds, frogs and smaller (equally fluffy) creatures that we find so charming.
 
The tramping of more feet – walking on even a simple small path or moving around to construct a boardwalk  – gradually destroys thousands upon thousands of these organisms. They are squashed, displaced or smothered by weeds and grasses tracked in on our shoes as seeds. They cannot come back. More leaf litter with its little bugs, gone. Nothing to eat for the birds and the others. They go too.

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Each bit of cleared land was “only a little strip”. And look what's left. Death by a thousand cuts.
 
I have often heard: "What is the point of protecting these beautiful creatures/places if nobody can see them?"
 
The point is that it's not all about us. It's about morality. A fair go for all animals. It's their world too. Look at the map again. We've taken way more than our share already.
 
Yes, thousands of tourists visit the Penguin Parade to see wildlife in its natural habitat. But both the transition from beach blankets to viewing platforms and the acquisition/buyback on Summerland Peninsula were designed to keep people OUT of the penguins' way, not to facilitate walking through their habitat. Visitor access is comparable to watching from a lookout, not to a walk through the vegetation. 
 
Penguin Parade infrastructure has been built on previously cleared land and a strong ongoing commitment to restoring natural vegetation on all the other disturbed land has been hugely successful in restoring once declining penguin numbers. That strategy is the opposite of the Yallock-Bulluk proposition to make formal tracks through existing habitat.
 
The concept of a trail which utilises adjacent, already cleared land makes more sense to me. Despite my anguish back when the desalination plant was proposed, I now applaud the restoration of that area from cleared farmland to a walk-accessible natural park. The project has resulted in new, thriving wildlife habitat and walks which people can enjoy.
 
The George Bass trail was once cleared land and look at it now.
 
​Some of this will likely be somebody's productive farmland at present. That is another story. This is not a simple fix. But I agree with Leticia that this is an opportunity the Yallock-Bulluk project must seek: restoring vegetation on previously cleared land, making the trail through there and incorporating “offshoot” access to elevated lookouts over the beautiful areas they are seeking to showcase.
 
Working from a clean slate on the cleared land also allows low-impact access for ongoing track maintenance. This introduces another factor: projects MUST demonstrate that the grants which are sought include provision for the extra staff required, who will maintain this trail along its length for years and years to come.  Because, sadly, for every visitor who, given easier access, learns to appreciate the beauty, there are other people who will come simply because it is a secluded spot they can now easily drive to, for dumping rubbish and other clandestine activity.
 
Countless examples of this, along with eroding tracks and deteriorated infrastructure across the country, show us that ongoing care of these places is often very difficult to achieve, once the fanfare is over, the novelty wears off and the funding dries up in ensuing years. ​
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A view from Google Earth show how much of Bass Coast has been cleared.
7 Comments
Hilary Stuchbery
16/7/2021 01:34:14 pm

Food for thought Julie and very well put. Development of this region seems to be going apace and it's obvious the little (almost unseen) creatures and plants will be the first casualties.
Next step: control?
Hilary

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Anne Heath Mennell
16/7/2021 02:23:26 pm

Thank you, Julie, for this excellent reminder of the dangers involved in all development - including scenic walks in fragile environments. So many unknown, unseen lifeforms which are vital to the survival of the sweet furry critters or pretty birds which we do see and value. As you say, it is not all about us humans. Every life has a part to play in the whole and we ignore this at our peril. Thank you for speaking on behalf of all the species which have no voice.

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Yvonne McRae
16/7/2021 04:53:47 pm

Agree 100% Julie. The Web of Life starts with the untold trillions of unseen bacteria, moulds and hundreds of 'other' critters in a handful of earth. Only for these life forms the earth would be covered by hundreds of metres of leaves, twigs, branches etc. Each rung up the ladder of life depends on the rungs underneath. Humans think we are so clever but we only exist because of this web of life. Remember there is no planet B for when we have finished wrecking planet Earth.

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Margaret Lee
16/7/2021 06:22:46 pm

Thank you Julie!
We need to protect our remnant bushland flora, fauna, fungi, lichens mosses and all the miraculous living ecosystems on the Bass Coast and Westernport

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Meryl Tobin link
19/7/2021 06:21:37 pm

A top analysis of one of the biggest problems facing our community here and communities in many other places in the world today, Julie. Thank you.

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Christine Larsen
21/7/2021 05:14:14 pm

Well put Julie. Smiths Beach is currently looking at a new masterplan which includes a walking track from YCW carpark to Smiths. All part of a bigger walking track idea I think. I am keeping an eye on it as are others. This article gives me great food for thought which I will pass on. Thanks!

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Mel Marks
22/7/2021 01:34:03 pm

Bravo Julie! Thank you for putting into very appropriate words, written through professional and personal experiences, what many ‘Bass Coasters’ wish they they could do. Thankyou!

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