Keeping the track safe

[Graham51]

Over Easter I went with a group on a day walk to Cape Pillar and back over Mt Fortescue. It was a great day and a good leg stretch. On our way back, about 20 minutes past Munro Hut (is that the right word?) we encountered a park ranger who was using a plastic garden rake to clear leaves off the track. He had done a few hundred metres, at least. He said it tended to get a bit slippery when the leaves get wet. To me this seems to be a waste of resources where there are so many other places/tracks that could use maintenance and upgrading.
What do other people think?

[Nuts]

Maybe the ranger took it upon themselves to do this? Iv'e not seen that prescription in track grades, dry boot yes/ but free of debris? Responsible for any they miss? Maybe urban planning rules now apply.

[crollsurf]

Maybe the planned work fell through so they were just keeping busy. Hard to believe that would have been on the to-do list unless a lot of people use the track and slipping off is potentially fatal.

[andrewp]

Don't get me started about that track. I was there in March and they'd helicoptered in at least 40tons of dirt and were applying it to the track between Fortesque Bay and Cape Hauy. It didn't look to me like it needed any maintenance at all. When I questioned the contractor why they were doing it, he said there was some erosion, but I still couldn't see it.

I've seen rangers with leaf blowers up at Dandenong Ranges NP, but raking a bush track takes the cake. You wouldn't want people getting too close to the environment.

[Orion]

Walking the Kepler track in NZ last year we came upon a woman working for the DOC pushing a wheel and taking notes. She was documenting the precise location of any irregularities in the track such as mud puddles, rocks, places that were too bumpy, etc. She told us someone else would come later and possibly correct these problems.

Maybe that's the future for Tasmania.

[Warin]

Possibly a ranger who comes across a particular accident wants to avoid similar events by removing the cause of the one they observed.

[doogs]

Meh.. He/she has a job funded by people walking the 3 Capes track, so do the track workers. I was there in March too, and yes, there was erosional issues that needed addressed before that track deteriorated further. It's much more preferable to have folks in these careers than environmentally destructive ones!!

[Strider]

Walking the Kepler track in NZ last year we came upon a woman working for the DOC pushing a wheel and taking notes. She was documenting the precise location of any irregularities in the track such as mud puddles, rocks, places that were too bumpy, etc. She told us someone else would come later and possibly correct these problems.

Maybe that's the future for Tasmania.

What I find most amazing about this is that she didn’t just use a GPS to record waypoints.


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[Warin]

Walking the Kepler track in NZ last year we came upon a woman working for the DOC pushing a wheel and taking notes. She was documenting the precise location of any irregularities in the track such as mud puddles, rocks, places that were too bumpy, etc.

What I find most amazing about this is that she didn’t just use a GPS to record waypoints.

No batteries required with the wheel.

[Nuts]

A graveled track still needs maintenance, especially in the first years as the fill settles. Fair enough.

Nothing has yet been 'funded' by this track until such a stage where the principal has been repaid? Or what other benchmark do we use?
At even the current cost per walker will that ever happen given the interest on such a large expense?
(it doesn't much matter where the money came from, it's public revenue)

Better this than ? Forestry or mining? Agreed, that if it was a like for like (dislike) this (form of tourism) may be more 'sustainable' but jobs aren't being swapped other than in some version of an idealistic future. More likely forestry/mining/'eco'-tourism.

Meanwhile consider the relative return or worth of such projects.. if there is a net cost into the imaginable future maybe consider similar, profit driven, commercial operations. I caught, for example the Tas wine industry, a minor yet growth area of our economy with a return of $115m. A guestimate of 25-30 private hut strings littering our wilderness, to even measure up! Is a paltry $115m then even enough? We are led to believe this economy is necessary! That the (measurable & immeasurable) cost is justified!? .. Closer to the point, could we just agree to this $100+m Eco-resort at Freycinet and call it 'enough'.

In regards to clearing detritus, setting up a practice that will become first accepted, then expected. Like clearing hut and track footprints, clearing debris is generally, as far as environment is concerned, alteration and 'damage', at the very least of no direct benefit. And, safety-wise, an open ended responsibility, burdened on our park service.

[taswegian]

I thought one could delete posts. Messed this up

[taswegian]

Walking the Kepler track in NZ last year we came upon a woman working for the DOC pushing a wheel and taking notes. She was documenting the precise location of any irregularities in the track such as mud puddles, rocks, places that were too bumpy, etc.

What I find most amazing about this is that she didn’t just use a GPS to record waypoints.

No batteries required with the wheel.

The beauty of a wheel is you know distance from point to point.
Can't work that off a GPS easily in twists and turns, ups and downs.
There's advantages either way.

[Orion]

The beauty of a wheel is you know distance from point to point.
Can't work that off a GPS easily in twists and turns, ups and downs.
There's advantages either way.

Exactly. In fact that's what she said. And she was using both.

[RicktheHuman]

we encountered a park ranger who was using a plastic garden rake to clear leaves off the track. He had done a few hundred metres, at least. He said it tended to get a bit slippery when the leaves get wet.

Maybe he was the "work experience" ranger. Even if he wasn't, that would be a hilarious prank! Making someone rake leaves from a bushwalking track!