Rangers say picking up a walking stick during a bush walk may seem harmless but it's causing significant damage to the environment.

When hiking through a national park, it may seem harmless to pick up a stick from the bush and use it as a type of walking aid.

"The sticks are used by the little creatures [and plants] of the national park, the echidnas burrowing underneath it … insects, lizards, birds, fungi and moss."

"The removal of just one stick can impact these animals in lots of different ways."

He said 75,000 people visit the national park every year and hikers picking up sticks as walking aids can become an "ecological nightmare" when done in volume.

"Every stick will either be habitat or food for organisms."

"I think a lot of people might just be thinking 'it’s just one stick', but they don’t see the sheer number of sticks that we are picking up and having to redistribute and put back into the bush."

  • Lintson@aussie.zone
    ·
    10 months ago

    Rangers: "don't move sticks! It's a habitat"

    Also Rangers: cuts an entire tree into logs because its blocking view of a shitty lake from a viewing platform.

  • ElGosso [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    Other reasons:

    • you might accidently grab a snake that's lying very still
    • the stick might have some poop on it (yuck!)
    • the park rangers called dibs
  • tau@aussie.zone
    ·
    10 months ago

    Seems like people should stop spending effort on finding a good walking stick mid walk and instead just look around at the start of the track for one that was good enough for someone else to bring all the way back...

  • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zone
    ·
    10 months ago

    Why can't people just enjoy by observing, instead of having to interfere with things?

    Like those idiots who stack rocks. It's not clever, it's not zen, it's just a bit of vandalism.

    It's not tipping out a drum of oil or spray painting a cliff face or anything, but why do you need to have a physical impact? Just leave shit alone.

  • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
    ·
    10 months ago

    It's fine if you're in the high country where there are only a few visitors every week. But most backpackers have started using trekking poles anyways. I was really opposed to them, thinking they were just more shit for gear heads to spend money on, but they're actually really great. Get yourself a pair of quality trekking poles, or a single monopole, and you'll never need to find a hiking stick again.