The government department tasked with guarding Bendigo’s state forests wants more people to explore the natural environment that surrounds the central Victorian city.
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But the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has also asked people who use the bush to curb the damage they leave behind.
DELWP Murray Goldfields district manager Paul Bates said while people living in smaller towns like Dunnolly and Inglewood were well-acquainted with patches of state forest neighbouring their homes, many Bendigonians were yet to discover the natural beauty nearby.
About 14,000 hectares of state forest can be found around Bendigo, the largest of which is Wellsford State Forest.
Mr Bates, who has worked at DELWP for 25 years, visited the Wellsford on Thursday. He said improvements to forest roads were one of the biggest changes he had observed in that time and, combined with an increase in the popularity of all-terrain vehicles, made public land more accessible than ever.
“The opportunity’s here and it’s so close,” he said.
But several recreational groups, like those involved in shooting, prospecting, biking and orienteering, needed no encouragement to enjoy the forest.
Among the community organisations to make use of the natural resource is the Bendigo Field Naturalists Club, a group that has been surveying the state forest ecosystem since its foundation 70 years ago.
Asked what changes his group had observed in the landscape during that time, BFNC committee member Ben Goonan said the millenium drought and subsequent rains had left an impact on the terrain.
But not all transformations were brought about by natural phenomena, with Mr Goonan explaining he had seen a “boom” in illegal, single tracks made by mountain bike riders over the past five years.
Illegal rubbish dumping on the forest’s edge had also increased in that time, he said.
Mr Bates asked forest users to respect the land so other people would not be deterred from visiting.
“If there’s off-road motorcycles making a heap a noise when you’ve come out for a picnic on a Sunday, if you’re experience isn’t good, you might think ‘I’m not going back there’.”
Greater protection for the Wellsford has been a topic of discussion since 2001 when a Victorian Environmental Assessment Council review into box-ironbark forests resulted in the establishment of the Greater Bendigo National Park.
While the Wellsford was left out, Bendigo’s council backed a report in 2014 calling for the forest to be granted more protection.
Prospects uncertain for treasure hunters
Amateur treasurer hunters are concerned state forests in central Victoria could soon be off limits for recreational prospecting and metal detecting.
A column by Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria president Rita Bentley in her organisation’s newsletter said if a campaign to turn 355,000 hectares of east Victorian state forest into a national park was successful, the attention of conservation groups would shift to the Central Goldfields region.
While recreational prospecting is permitted in state forests – so long as a miner’s right is obtained and mechanical tools are not used to excavate the land – it is typically forbidden in state and national parks.
Ms Bentley said a Victorian National Parks Association report released in 2010, which listed 110,000 hectares of state forest across central Victoria it believed should be turned into state parkland, was reason to believe the region would be next in line for reform.
Dunnolly-Wanyaara, Kingower and Wellsford state forests were among the forests the VPNA recommended be better protected.
But VNPA spokesman Phil Ingermalls said the prospectors’ claim was “a long bow to draw”.
While he stood by the 2010 recommendations, he said no process to transition central Victorian land into a state park was before the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council, the authority that decided on the forests’ status.
Conflict between the prospecting and conservation bodies is not new.
Both Ms Bentley and Mr Ingamells were members of a community reference group for a VEAC inquiry into prospecting in state and national parks in 2013.
On that occasion, the council found recreational prospecting “did not sit well” with the purposes of national parks.
Ms Bentley said she understood the need to protect the environment from harm, like that caused by off-road motorcyclists, but prospectors were not among those to cause damage.
“They dump their rubbish, they ride their bikes,” she said.
“They don't catch those people who are already doing the wrong thing and people like us get caught up.”
Kids make tracks in high-tech forest game
Kalianna students have swapped their classroom for state forest to take on a high-tech version of orienteering.
Teacher Karina Smith said senior classes became passionate about geocaching – the practice of using GPS technology to uncover collectable items hidden in nature – while on school camp, motivating staff to continue the practice upon return to Bendigo.
She said the activity was a hands-on alternative to more academic work, which some of her students might find difficult, and encouraged the class to explore the outdoors.
“Usually they're just inside learning, then they go home, go inside and play their games,” Ms Smith said.
The activity was so successful in engaging their students that the teachers designed their term 2 curriculum to focus on geocaching-related tasks.
Classes used their time in the Wellsford State Forest to observe local flora and fauna and join in conservation efforts by picking up rubbish.
“Our students even created their own caches for other people to find too,” she said.