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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-17 Daily Xml
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Environmental Volunteers

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (14:38): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation questions about environmental volunteers.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: On 14 May, the minister answered a question in this place regarding the contribution of volunteers to the management of South Australia's environment. As part of his answer, the minister said:

Volunteers work on a huge array of projects, including soil and land management, revegetation, native animal and plant surveys, fire management, trail maintenance, weed and pest animal control and heritage site restoration. As you can imagine, this is an important contribution to the successful implementation of our environmental program.

As most members will realise, these efforts epitomise the voluntary work of members of the Friends of Parks network across South Australia. In particular, I have personally had a long association with the Friends of Para Wirra group and the work that its members do in most—if not all—of those facets of environmental work. With this in mind, my questions are as follows:

1. When will the minister advise the Friends of Para Wirra group whether he will allow mountain bikes to be used in the natural bushland which that group has revitalised over a number of years?

2. Will he take into account the potential impact of mountain bike activity on the breeding cycles of wildlife in those bushland areas?

3. Is he considering reversing the decision to maintain the recreation park classification for Para Wirra park made early last year despite DEWNR's recommendation that it be declared a conservation park?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:40): I thank the honourable member for his most important question and, in particular, his longstanding association with Friends of the Parks at Para Wirra. It is a very important job that he does out there, as do all of our volunteers. I know the Hon. Mr Dawkins is out there weeding as often as he possibly can.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: No, he's not.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: He's not? He has given that up. We have got rid of most of the weeds in Para Wirra because of his sterling efforts with our volunteer group. The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources contributes to the South Australian Strategic Plan: Target 72—'Improving volunteer participation' through a range of volunteer efforts. For example, the department engages volunteers to undertake conservation activities in parks and across landscapes through the regional natural resources management model.

In 2013-14, volunteers spent an estimated 8,085 days on land management activities across the state and of these days approximately 591 days were spent on land management activities and projects specifically in our parks. Activities conducted by volunteers vary across locations but include important work such as weed removal, habitat restoration, raising community awareness through guided walks and events, and assisting with wildlife research and monitoring.

The department has a number of initiatives in place to increase environmental volunteering. A Friends of Parks business plan has been developed, the Campground Hosts program has been revitalised and is incredibly successful, I am advised, and annual regional initiatives involving community groups are organised frequently.

The Friends of Parks model began in the early 80s and has been the department's largest and longest running volunteer program, with more than 111 groups and several thousand active volunteers across the state. The department assists the Friends of Parks Incorporated board to develop business plans for improving and increasing the Friends of Parks program into the future.

The business plan is designed to provide support to Friends of Parks members groups, as well as raising the profile of the Friends of Parks brand as we try to recruit more and younger participants in that program. In order to roll out the business plan, a statewide consultation process is being implemented between the Friends of Parks board and members. Training workshops are being offered to board member groups that are subsidised by the Friends of Parks board, and a new Friends of Parks website is also being developed.

I give that information by way of background to our holistic approach to friends groups, but in terms of Para Wirra, and particularly mountain biking, it is a fantastic success story in how we come to terms with multiple uses in parks and how we reconcile sometimes different ambitions from different user groups in terms of bushwalking, mountain biking or just bringing young families to have picnics in parks.

There is often competition for the resources in our parks, and in Para Wirra what we manage to do is bring together all these sectors in the community to discuss their individual needs and come up with a way forward where everybody can get a share of those resources. We have built bike trails, walking trails and dual use trails in Para Wirra, and that seems to be working very successfully.

The great advantage of having bike trails built into our parks is that it actively encourages mountain bikers out of sensitive areas of parks where they would cut their own trails and go through sensitive areas, particularly where there may be, for example, rare orchid species in association with particular shrub land. Instead of allowing that to happen we actually encourage them to use the purpose-built bike paths.

In effect, those users become self-policing of their community group and also our eyes and ears in the park. They will report for us anyone who does the wrong thing, transgresses, and goes and uses their mountain bikes in places where they should not. It is a fantastic success story of bringing the community together to resolve competition problems in our parks.

It is something we are emulating elsewhere in terms of multiple uses in our parks. As the government proceeds with our consultation in the communities north and south about how to expend those moneys that have been allocated for upgrading our metropolitan parks, that is a process we will be using to bring users together to advise us how they want those moneys best spent. And, yes, I will not be changing the dedication provision in terms of the park. The policy as it currently stands will stay.

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