Barry Howlett and Jordan Crook on Great Forest National Park plan

A hunting advocate says the proposal will lock Victorians out of public land, while a nature campaigner says our forests need more protection. See both sides here.

The Great Forest National Park plan has sparked a battle of beliefs.

The government must reject a push to lock Victorians out of public land, writes Barry Howlett.

A proposal to create a “Great Forest National Park” in our Central Highlands would rob hundreds of thousands of Victorians of the opportunity to participate actively in the great outdoors. With logging on public land officially ending this week, it’s unclear what this proposal seeks to protect Victoria’s public land from.

Pet dogs along with a plethora of active outdoor activities are banned from National Parks in Victoria.

More than 50,000 Victorians are licensed to hunt deer in our State Forests. About 10,000 of them hunt with a range of approved dog breeds by their side. Hunters who take to the field with man’s best friend are more efficient (get more deer, more often) than those who don’t. Hunters come from all walks of life, but the “typical” deer hunter is a 35-year-old tradie from the outer suburbs of Melbourne raising a young family.

Hunting is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to uses of public land that would be shut down by a massive new national park on Melbourne’s doorstep. Take a trip to the state forests of the Central Highlands right now, and you will encounter thousands of Victorian families spending their summer break camping, many with their pets. Aside from being a fantastic way to spend their holidays, for an increasing number of Victorians, this is the only holiday they can afford.

Four-wheel drivers, climbers, cyclists, horse riders, trail-bike riders, household firewood collectors, fishers and apiarists would all have their proverbial wings clipped by the proposed tripling of the Central Highland’s national parks, all for no environmental gain.

There is no evidence that locking up land in national parks is the best approach to conservation. As renowned conservation scientist Professor Hugh Possingham wrote in the journal Nature, “There’s a whole bunch of people who love national parks and who have confused the outcome with the action. They think the aim now is to create more national parks, not to protect biodiversity”.

Public land must remain accessible to the everyday Victorians who like to use it, not locked up for the ideological gratification of a handful of noisy activists inside the “Goats Cheese Curtain”.

With Victoria’s population projected to be approaching nine million by the end of the next decade, Victorians need more space for active outdoor recreation, not less.

We already have a “Great Forest”; state forests are great forests!

*Barry Howlett is communications manager at the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (Victoria).

Victoria needs more forests listed for protection, writes Jordan Crook.

National parks permanently protect native habitats. They form the backbone of our community’s efforts to conserve our natural heritage, unique native wildlife, water catchments and carbon-rich forests. They also provide essential space for families across Victoria, to enjoy rest and recreate in our great outdoors.

In a recent assessment from the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council, forests of the Central Highlands including those around Mt Baw Baw, Marysville and Toolangi have been recommended for national park status as they were found to have such high conservation value and little conflicting land uses.

These new and expanded parks will protect these unique forests and waterways on Melbourne’s doorstep and improve accessibility and visitor facilities such as picnic and campground opportunities.

Calls for these areas to be added to the parks estate can be traced back to the 1920s and the community is very clear in their support for new and expanded parks as well as their support for an increase in funding park rangers and management.

Polling by independent research firm Lonergan Research showed three quarters of Victorians support national park expansion and protection, including Great Forest National Park in the Yarra Ranges (76 per cent).

Inclusion into the national parks estate will mean the forests will have more resources and access to expertise for improved management and increased expertise in invasive species control.

Control of feral plants and animals is a huge challenge across Victoria, which requires a co-ordinated, informed, well-funded and large-scale approach.

Recreational hunters alone do not reduce the threat of invasive species such as deer, cats and foxes across the highlands. Co-ordinated approaches in parks have been highly successful in reducing and removing large numbers of feral plants and animals.

Expansion of these types of programs across new parks will see these threats reduced further, as little to no effective control happens in state forests.

Fire management in parks is often a conflated issue by those who seek to extract and harm forests for short-term gain. But national park status doesn’t increase fire risk. Fire risk is managed by Forest Fire Management Victoria across all public land tenures including increasingly on private land.

Protection of these forests in national parks will improve outcomes for all the plants and animals that make up and rely on these forests, including us. These forests protect our water catchments and clean our air. It’s time for new parks in the Central Highlands of Victoria.

*Jordan Crook is parks and nature campaigner at the Victorian National Parks Association.