Discussion: Orienteering in Namadgi NP Under Attack in Canberra

Check out this article, all over local ABC radio here in Canberra today, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/25/2752...
This could threaten the future use of Namadgi National Park for orienteering, with classic maps such as Honeysuckle and Boboyan unable to be used for major events.
To start fighting back for the sport, what are some valid strong arguments to counter the National Park Association Claims?

OACT Response here: http://www.act.orienteering.asn.au/

reading articles like this, makes me glad i dont live in america. when you have both conservatives wanting people to have "property rights", and environmentalists who want people to stay out of the forest and live in the cities. that sucks, i feel really sorry for you.

my arguments would be that orienteering plays a role that runners are using light equipment, and damage is minimal compared to mountain bikes and machine vechicles.

also most disturbance in plants are recovered within a year.

doing orienteering regulates the environment in the way that they use the nature, instead of for example people who do track and field builds a huge station to supply the entire sport.

but what concerns me the most, is the double moral in america. People drive huge SUVs, have huge environmental impact, so to compensate they ban people who likes nature to go for a run in the forest.

you might want to offer some sort of car pooling regulations prior to the event to motivate the environmentalists.

mnipen, this particular incident is in Australia, but your point still stands (within Australia)

(Had thought mnipen made the grave error of confusing Aussie's for Yankee's?)

From the short period i lived in Australia it was obvious that the sport is not generally understood. Conditions are not helped when so many of those those employed in parks and rangers services are particularly hostile towards the sport.
The frustration i could see in this is knowing that Bush is for the most part significantly less sensitive than countless other places in the world (many of them used for O).
How does the all but non-exitant damage caused by a a few hundred orienteers taking infinite number of different routes compare with the damage from a fire or a wet weekend?

Here's 'tale' of a major British Event having been upset in a similar manner. The lesson learned being more careful selection and talking to the right people earlier in the process.
http://www.bobw.co.uk/Uploads/CMS/Files/297/CS%20O...

Yet despite this other clubs have managed to maintain PERMANENT Orienteering courses running through SSSI's
http://www.shotover-wildlife.org.uk/sworienteer.ht...

ah shit. didnt see that one. i feel ignorant...

At least you didn't mistake them for kiwi's! :-)

Things changed after the 2003 fires. I remember hearing from the rogainers that the draft management plan for Namadgi immediately afterwards would not have allowed events over 200 competitors.

I think the cap is now 700? Andy would know; he spent something like 8 months trying to get permission to use Orroral before finally settling on Gudgenby, (presumably because that area wasn't burnt?). He must be tearing his hair out about now!

There's a map in SA that we can't use any more because Kaiserstuhl Conservation Park has a rabid Friends of the Park group :(

I'm not sure the 'orienteers get to use more sensitive areas in other countries' argument is going to fly.

%^@$!!! eco-fascists.

Thanks for your comments.

Yes, it is frustrating, but I'm not too fussed about this latest release. It's important to note that the NPA is a lobby group and has no formal power. The Easter event has been approved by the chief minister himself, following advice from park management -- most of whom we have very good relationships and, while they may not be "on our side", they have certainly seen the effort we have put in and are comfortable with our event.

A major bonus to come out of all this hullaballoo is that we will have an independently verified environmental monitoring scheme commissioned by park management, which will settle once and for all whether a large event like this has any observable environmental impact whatsoever....

I wonder if venue owners here in the US would consider the results of the study applicable here.

That would be great to see.

If possible, could you/someone publish this study on the web someplace?

Any attempts to contact the lobby the NPA and persuade them to lobby differently? If these thousands of competitors were to write letters sharing their thoughts on how they strive to be low impact, and how their orienteering experiances teach them to respect and appreciate the environment. Share their strong belief that intimate physical interaction with the environment is an important driving force for cultivating environmental appreciation (I might say that it was for John Muir), and that orienteering represents such an interaction.

Well, I doubt everyone in the NPA must be so extreme - there are probably some opinions to be swayed there.

I'm impressed that something to do with orienteering actually managed to get media coverage in Canberra yesterday. (For the benefit of non-Australian readers, the last two days of news have been dominated by the opposition Liberal (conservative) party tearning themselves apart over their response to the government's climate change legislation).

Once an issue becomes political having high-level support is very important, and it sounds like we have some. Certainly having someone campaigning against us is a new experience in Australia, although the Swiss, at least (who fought many battles with the hunting lobby) will know all about it. I guess the other concern is that they could try to take legal action to stop the event, but I can't see how they could get anywhere unless park management have authorised something that the management plan says they can't (and I presume this isn't the case).

There is an NPA in Victoria (and maybe other states too?), but I don't know if they have any connection with the ACT one. We haven't had any issues with them that I know of.

There is a very interesting contrast between the 2 adjacent articles on the NPA website :

Namadgi site 'inappropriate' for orienteering event


and the report immediately below it:

Serious hikers support conservation


this is a report of a 2008 US study and includes:

"Now Pergams and Zaradic, along with Peter Kareiva, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, have found that only people who engage in vigorous outdoor sports, like hiking and backpacking, tend later to become supporters of mainline conservation groups, while those who only go sightseeing or fishing do not. Their findings are reported Oct. 7 in PLoS ONE, an online publication of the Public Library of Science.

The researchers found that the amount of time one spent hiking or backpacking in nature correlated with a willingness, 11 to 12 years later, to financially support any of four representative conservation organizations: the Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, the Sierra Club or Environmental Defense. The typical backpacker gave $200 to $300 per year, after the dozen-year lag.

"For the first time, we've shown a direct correlation between outdoor recreation and investment in conservation, and we know what types of outdoor activity are most likely to lead to conservation investment," Zaradic said."
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"Pergams says the key to conservation awareness and support is to reach children early with broad-based educational programs that introduce them to vigorous outdoor recreation.

"If you never get out into nature, you're not going to care about it when you get older," Pergams said. "The kids are where it's at, and we're losing our kids to other influences -- they don't go outside." "

I havent read the articles so i dont know if what i am going to ask is in there....

IF we are banned from Namadgi for the Orroral crossing event is there an alternative map to use?

Thanks for pointing that out Rockman, I've just fired off the following email to them:

"Hi

I am writing not so much about your uninformed campaign against orienteering in Namadgi National Park, but about the item immediately below this on your home page (Serious hikers support conservation), and I suggest that your President read this article carefully, then withdraw her media release about orienteering.

As a long time orienteer (30+ years) and passionate conservation supporter, I am not surprised by the findings of the American study. I am both a regular visitor to national parks and forests around Australia for orienteering and bushwalking, and a strong financial supporter of conservation groups. No doubt many hundreds of other orienteers around Australia - many of whom would be planning to attend the 2010 Easter event - maintain very similar support levels for conservation . Most of us are precisely in that group which makes up the narrow base of support for environmental groups, ie elite, active outdoor enthusiasts, predominantly university educated, higher income, and over 35.

I am sure other environmental organisations around Australia would be most upset at losing the support of orienteers through the short-sighted, and ill-informed actions of your organisation.

In all the thousands of hours I have spent bushwalking and orienteering, I have yet to see any significant, long lasting effect on the environment caused by our activities. At 100% of the orienteering events I have attended, including some with over 1,000 participants, a visitor to the area on the day following the event would not know that we had been there. Compare this to the litter left by one group of hoons, or the damage caused by one illegal, fun-seeking trail-bike rider.

Your time (and the resources provided by our support!) would be far better spent campaigning for more and better ranger resources to monitor the activities of the far more thoughtless and destructive casual visitors to Namadgi.

Tony Simpkins
Member
Orienteering Western Australia"

I think I'll add the phrase 'puts complex eco-systems at risk' to my collection of meaningless fluff phrases used in propoganda when you are short of evidence. It joins the many other phrases used by social conservatives, neo-liberals and even the Citizen's Electoral Council.

I'd love them to explain the long lasting effects of 'large tents and marquees'

It may just be that Ms McGoonrey's doomsday scenario will turn out to be a blessing in disguise for ACT Orienteering.
Her predicition of the environmental catastrophe to be caused by the hundreds of Eastertime orienteers is laughable. However it should bring scrutiny to the event including environmentalist, official and media attention. That is good. If her claims are substantiated then Orienteering should mend its ways. However if the predicted damage does not occur - and I'm sure it won't - then both environmentalists and officials will know what orienteers already know. We like to leave the area just the way we found it if for no other reason than that is the way we mapped it and that is the way we want to find it the next time we come back.
I hope that Nature group and everyone else will be invited to visit the event and return to the site within a reasonable time to see the 'lasting effects' for themselves.

If the results are positive, it might make sense to negotiate a joint press release with the zealots.

I think people should remember that this thread is very Googleable and so what you write here is publicly available. Calling people rude names isn't a way to make friends and influence people.

This all sounds like something that will go away as long as no ill-effects actually turn up on the day. The Easter event sounds like it is in the bag with the Parks people on side, and the mayor's support (What, you call the mayor a Chief Minister in Canberra?). It is instructive to learn that erosion will be worse if Easter is dry. I'm sure the organisers have got the environmental effects in hand, whether Easter is wet or dry.

By the way, Invisible Log, is the National Parks Association social conservatives or neo-liberals?