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I have been reading with interest the postings on
the poor management of SA's parks. Through discussions with some of the local
rangers in previous years, I know that often budgeting is an issue - money is
allocated for a particular project at a certain time, and then some pollie whose
political rating is low wants to be seen to be doing something, and proposes a
'brand new' whatever for a completely different region. Money is then
'reallocated', and the original project (fencing, signing, weed control,
whatever) is put back for another few years. And a carefully planned
budget is shot to pieces for the sake of a few more months in the career of
someone whose interest in the environment is (probably)
non-existent.
To illustrate the somewhat sorry state even
further, I spent last weekend up around Clare, and visited Spring Gully
Conservation Park - set up to protect the only occurrence of Eucalyptus
macrorrhyncha, Red Stringybark, in SA. Being a bit of a plant person, I
spent several hours checking out the veg (yes Tony, I did some birdwatching too,
those ATLAS forms are coming), and was pretty excited to get home and pull out
the books to i.d. what I'd seen. Imagine my disappointment when I went to obtain
a copy of the management plan for the park, only to find...there's never been
one written. And the only information available to me were 7 type-written sheets
from the 1980's - kindly provided to me by the lady in the Environment Shop, who
confirmed that as far as she knew, there had never been a mgt plan written for
the area. As for species lists for birds, plants etc - 'unpublished'. I have yet
to do any further tracking to see what is available, but I was quite surprised
that a relic population, where the only other examples are in Vic and NSW,
warranted such little attention. No plan, no available species list, no current
map with walking trails etc.
Perhaps more 'outsourcing', to interested parties
for management plans, flora & fauna lists etc, is the only way to manage our
parks and other areas...I'm sure there'd be plenty of uni graduates out there
just keen to sink their teeth into something like that, of real value in their
careers and certainly beneficial to the state.
Ms Karina Mercer
4 Shirley Avenue
Felixstow
5070
Ph: (08) 8365 3020
Mob: 040 317
3020
e-mail:
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