Leading us down the garden path

By Darin Huddy

ADELAIDE -- South Australia's national parks and wildlife reserves are heading for a crisis, battling feral animals, weeds and a lack of funds from the Labor government.

Although land under the national parks system has increased fourfold since 1985, money allocated towards the scheme has not even doubled; $7.9 million was allocated to manage 4.6 million hectares of parks in 1985, while in 1991 $11.8 million was provided to fund 20.2 million hectares.

Indigenous species are disappearing at an alarming rate, with mammal extinctions at 40% and birds at 14%.

The number of rangers employed to care for the parks has remained static despite the increase in number of reserves. In fact, more people are employed to maintain the city's “external image” (parks and gardens) than as state park rangers.

Park rangers now find their main tasks involve collecting park fees, revenue raising projects and administration. It has been pointed out that rangers spend 85% of their time in offices, reducing their roles to mere paper-pushers and revenue collectors.

In an interview appearing in the Advertiser, the new chief executive of the Land Development Department, Dennis Mutton, did not emphasise his commitment to the environment but to “customer service, balanced policies and feedback systems”.

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