Con,
How much more tax were you wanting to pay? As long as both sides of politics continue to make tax cuts part of their re-election promises we much expect services to dwindle.
And besides, our parks will be a chorus of falling trees for the next decade or more, so I wouldn’t be looking towards any burnt areas any time soon. I hope they focus their precious
resources in protecting the areas of that are open to the public from being too damaged by the people use them.
John
From: Con Boekel <>
Sent: Saturday, 15 February 2020 11:29 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] RE: No Namadji for weeks?
I have noticed that over the last 35 years less and less of our nature reserves are easily accessible because access roads have been closed to car traffic.
For young and fit people, this is not much of an issue.
For the ageing population it means that our world is increasingly limited by management regulation.
IMO, some large reserve areas west of the Bidgee were not burned and should be accessible now.
Beyond that, I would prefer to see a graduated opening of fire-affected areas as they are checked by staff.
It is not unreasonable to expect a timeline for this - beyond something vague like maybe 'weeks'.
If actual circumstances, such as new and unexpected risks, force an alteration in the timelines then it is reasonable to alter the timelines - along with an explanation of why the alterations are necessary.
Keeping the whole reserve area west of the Bidgee closed until the very last smidgin of fire damage has been checked seems to be quite OTT.
If the real issue for the prolonged, total lack of access is that not enough staff are being allocated to reserve management then that is something the ACT Government could, and should, address.
(This is NOT a criticism of ACT reserve staff for who I have developed over the decades much appreciation and admiration.)
regards
Con
On 2/15/2020 11:12 AM, sandra henderson wrote:
I personally think it's perfectly reasonable that it's closed , to ensure staff who need to be out and about don't have to think about checking road conditions (which is done regularly
throughout Namadgi when the park is open, fires or no fires), cleaning up after the morons who leave rubbish everywhere they go, and so on. The parks staff have more than enough to do right now. We'll be allowed back in when fire season is over.
I was surprised to see quite a few tents at Cotter campground this morning - it only re-opened to campers yesterday!
Sandra H
On Saturday, 15 February 2020, <> wrote:
Thanks Kym, Tony and Chrissy, but it doesn’t seem reasonable that we are still banned from Northern Namadji where there was no fire at all and lots of rain since.
Sue
Hi all,
Is it true that the public, including us citizen scientists, are being banned from the whole of Namadji for at least six weeks yet? Including the northern unburnt areas? How does
that work?? It’s not just that the mountain deprivation becomes intolerable. I want to go and see and record what birds are up there right now – not at the end of March when a lot of the summer migrants would normally have left anyway.
Yours in frustration,
Sue Beatty
