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.”
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“Visitors might think, ‘it’s only one stick’, but it can have a very large, accumulated effect over time,” Carnarvon national park ranger in charge Lindie Pasma said.
Ms Pasma said rangers had noticed a rise in the number of sticks being left at walking track exits matching an increase in visitation over winter.
Simon Ling is the co-owner of Australian Nature Guides and has been taking visitors through the Carnarvon National Park on tours for 20 years.
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.
"The key message to get across is that old adage, ‘you’re not supposed to take anything but photographs and leave nothing but footprints’ and if you stick to that principle you’re pretty well right.
Ms Pasma said it was great to see so many people visiting the national park, but urged them to do their research about the trails and whether they would need specialised hiking poles.
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