The picturesque Arthur Ranges, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, have been a bucket-list destination for bushwalkers and mountaineers for decades. Yet, since the golden days of multiday expeditions in the late 80s and early 90s, actual visitor numbers have been declining.
Many people tend to assume that less visitation to an environmentally-sensitive area will mean a direct reduction in negative impacts, such as erosion. However, this doesn’t appear to be the case for the Arthurs, as is shown in a research paper published by the Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS), Tasmania, in June this year.
Entitled Recreational impact monitoring & management of the Arthur Ranges and authored by ex-PWS monitoring officer and regular Wild contributor Grant Dixon, the study covers 20 years of research in both the Western and Eastern Arthurs. Having spent many years monitoring things like track and campsite condition, erosion and ground cover, Dixon has produced an extensive overview of walker-related impacts across a wide range of areas and their environments.
The report details the management activities that have been undertaken in the Arthurs since the early 90s (mostly comprising some track and campsite hardening and closures) and their relative success, but concludes that overall ‘these measures fell far short of what was necessary to stabilise impacts (particularly track impacts) throughout the ranges’.
‘The refocussing of agency budget priorities since the early 2000s has stalled efforts to achieve sustainable management of the Arthur Ranges,’ the report concludes.
It’s Dixon’s contention that many users of tracks in areas like the Arthurs, that are particularly susceptible to negative impacts, are rarely aware of how simply walking and camping in these regions can have knock-on effects long after they’re gone, as well as how little budget is made available for maintenance and repair.
“The problem is that areas like the Arthurs are particularly sensitive to trampling impacts but expensive to undertake works in, challenging to actively manage because of their remoteness and difficult to justify addressing because of relatively low visitation levels (at least, to those who decide where to spend money on the basis of where people go, rather than environmental considerations),” Dixon told us in a recent interview.
“The paradox is one needs to invest more money and management effort in low-use areas in order to maintain their condition than many higher use areas,” he continued. “An additional paradox is that spending money on works changes the character and visitation of these areas and, at some point may alter the attraction for existing users.
Dixon says the sort of changed use that such works may facilitate can be witnessed now at Frenchmans Cap, where partial track upgrades has resulted in a near-doubling of visitors, potentially increasing the rate of impact in the destination’s alpine area.
Maintaining tracks and campsites in sensitive alpine areas really boils down to three options for park managers, Dixon explained: “Harden it, ration it or sacrifice it”.
Hardening encompasses the formation of solid tracks and campsites that are less prone to erosion and wear, which are usually designed to divert water away from or underneath them. This is an expensive process and, as noted above, can have various impacts on the way visitors use the facilities at hand. Dixon also notes it’s rarely considered a panacea for management and other measures are required in tandem. Rationing, which has also been discussed for the Arthur Ranges, requires systems to be put in place to control or limit the number of visitors, or restrict them from certain areas. This is generally seen as unpalatable in the current climate according to Dixon. Finally, sacrificing an area is usually what happens by default when not enough (or nothing) is done regarding the above strategies.
“For the Arthurs,” Dixon noted, “some of the first option has been done, the second has been discussed and gone nowhere and the third is where we are at currently.”
According to Mark Pharoah, PWS Parks and Reserves manager for the region, the study is valuable “in terms of examining walker impacts over a 20 year period and evaluating the success of various management strategies during that time”, but that due to nature of the area, erosion is unlikely to have widespread environmental impacts.
“While erosion is a concern, given the areas protected within the Tasmanian reserve system, it is unlikely to be significant in an ecosystem context,” Pharoah said. “Other threats – fire, weeds, pests and disease have the potential for far greater impact on the natural and cultural values of the area,” but he nevertheless accepted that “even with decreasing numbers of walkers, natural erosive processes will continue to some extent.”
As a result, PWS appear to be downplaying the negative impacts that ongoing usage is having in the Arthurs according to the study, which specifically highlights the ongoing, human-induced erosion processes, which continue despite diminished visitation.
The Tasmanian National Parks Association’s Nick Sawyer is both avid bushwalker and conservationist, having worked alongside Dixon on several of his research expeditions. Speaking about the matter with Wild, Sawyer highlighted the fact that, while the issue had solicited a strong reaction from a management perspective in the 90s, funding has decreased significantly since that time.
“The issue of erosion was eased by hardening in some of the highest priority areas, as well as the instructions to ‘fan out’ in some open areas,” Sawyer said. “The presence of track rangers and a coherent minimal impact awareness campaign had marked effect, but that’s all gone now.”
More recently, funding cuts have meant that PWS must prioritise its schedule of planned works and management according to areas that receive the most interest from visitors, rather than considering the intrinsic value of the area in questions.
“It is in areas like the Arthurs that this lack of funding really shows,” Sawyer said.
Member of the IUCN and past CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Geoff Mosley believes Dixon’s research highlights the need for a new set of management proposals to be issued for the area, despite previous proposals failing to garner the necessary support from the public and specific user groups.
“The report is unusual in its scope in that it provides the results of 20 years of monitoring of track use and impacts in the Eastern and Western Arthur Ranges. Not many monitoring efforts of this kind have been carried out over such a long period and with such an amount of detail,” Mosley said.
“A set of draft recommendations based on the findings, including the discussion is needed. However, it might be worthwhile to survey the full range of users before these are finalised. Previous consultation regarding management recommendations has been contentious, and so developing an effective framework for those conversations should also be considered a priority.”
Sawyer believes that the report should be taken seriously by both the public and by the PWS, as “it is unique for both its duration and scientific rigor,” he said.
“I’m not aware of any comparable study anywhere in the world and it will not be repeated in Tasmania in the foreseeable future because Dixon has left the PWS and will not be replaced.”
Meanwhile, Pharoah and the PWS have already made it clear how their budget allocation shall be spent across the region, with “$40,000 this financial year for priority erosion control works in the Eastern Arthur Range on the access track to Federation Peak”, as this portion of the track is considered to be in need of urgent works.
Other recent and planned management operations in the region by PWS:
- Recently replaced the fly-out toilets along the entire Arthur Ranges traverse
- Maintenance to be carried our on the tent platforms at Lakes Oberon and Cygnus this summer, as well as repairs to rock work and duck boarding at Lake Oberon campsite
- The South Coast Track is expected to receive $1 million in track repairs, reroutes and campsite improvements
“We will continue to carry out works across the southwest track network on a priority basis as funding allows,” Pharoah said.