'Time has come': Should 4WDs be banned from national parks?

A professor of marine science is calling for a community discussion to find a different approach of how national parks are managed.

Professor Thomas Schlacher says this photo is a symbol of the effect 4WDs are having on national parks. Picture: Thomas Schlacher

A SUNSHINE Coast academic is calling for a community discussion on allowing 4WD access on national parks with beaches, after researching the damaging effects it has on the environment.

University of the Sunshine Coast Professor of Marine Science Thomas Schlacher said findings by the Animal Research Centre proved 4WDs were causing a lasting effect on national parks like Noosa North Shore and Fraser Island.

"I think the time has come where we need to seriously think carefully and intelligently of how we want to treat our national parks," he said.

Professor Shlacher found a crested tern that was hit by a 4WD along Teewah Beach, and said too often native birds were killed by 4WDs "pummelling" down the beach.

"They didn't die of plastic pollution, they died of harsh impact," he said.

Recreational 4WDing not only harmed the native wildlife, the physical destruction of sand dunes was creating a lasting effect, Prof Schlacher said.

"It is a vicious problem. People, I think, subconsciously realise that there is almost too much use now, but everybody still wants that wilderness experience," he said.

"We just need a different approach of how we manage our parks. Not every beach needs to have cars on it."

He said it was "bizarre" that we treated some beaches as a road, and not as an ecosystem.

"We kind of have lost our sense and sensibility when it comes to beaches," he said.

"We completely abuse them as if they would actually contain no life."

Prof Schlacher said the issue wasn't about imposing on peoples' rights to enjoy national parks or about placing blame on the rangers, but it was a deeper planning issue that needed to be discussed.

"It's really about having a debate as a community," he said.

"A national park is about people having access to nature, but it's also about protecting nature. And that balance has gone completely out of whack."