The ‘bush user’ type groups are certainly worked up at present. They are clamouring for a restart of logging in Victoria and outraged at the recent announcement of new national parks in central and western Victoria. Others claim that there is no management in national parks and that they are all tinderboxes waiting to explode. A central premise of these arguments is that protection of land in national parks constitutes the land being Locked Up, with resulting disaster due soon.
In this essay, John McRae delves into the oft repeated furphy that national parks are ‘locked up’.
National Parks are not Locked Up
In the 12th century CE, Toghrul Khan (the adopted father of Genghis Khan) banned hunting and logging on Bogd Khan Mountain in Mongolia, thus creating the world’s first nature reserve. No doubt there was a hue and cry from the locals about locking up the mountain. But it was not locked up. People could still visit, enjoy and worship; they just couldn’t take anything or harm anything. If they wanted firewood or a leg of yak, they’d have to look elsewhere. The mountain was sacred and protected. Variations of that model survive to this day in national parks the world over. They are open, accessible and protected in perpetuity. The antithesis of locked up. National parks have walking tracks, signage, BBQs and campgrounds. Facilities that say welcome, enjoy this magnificent place; just leave no trace. So why do so many people complain about national parks being locked up when they so obviously aren’t?
National parks have rules and rules can be mistaken for locks. Rules aren’t locks; they are there to protect people and the things they’ve come to see. When the first modern national parks were established in the late 19th century, they had few rules and no rangers, so poaching, vandalism and logging were rife. In the US, the government had to deploy the army to stop Yellowstone being destroyed. It was obvious from the beginning, that declaring an area a national park was meaningless without rules and rangers to enforce them.
Rules are not meant to be a proxy for ‘keep out’. Rules should say come in, explore, savour. Let your soul feast on the sheer amazingness of this place. National parks are not locked up, on the contrary, they need people. They need to be visited, valued and championed. Trails must be walked, mountains climbed, and awesomeness beheld. And that need is reciprocal. It’s the evolutionary symbiosis we think we’ve outgrown. We haven’t. People need parks. We live our lives trapped in bleak houses. Gardenless monstrosities with plastic tainted air and home cinemas that suck your senses dry. Ultraviolet vampires that replace the joy of life with device addiction. It’s no surprise that so many kids are lost and so many adults are miserable. They are wonder deprived. Too far from mother nature. We are creatures, not machines. We need the healing breath of trees; the wisdom of mountains; and the company of birds and butterflies. We need serenity and awe. Without those things we might as well be dead and national parks have them in abundance.
It’s time to ditch the nostalgia of unruled land. The frontier is gone. We gobbled it up centuries ago. There are no lawless boondocks beyond the horizon. There is nowhere on earth without rules and consequences, so stop looking for them. Three quarters of Australia is freehold and leasehold. If you want to see what locked up really looks like, try trespassing on private property, indigenous lands, military bases or pastoral leases. Enjoy the eviction. In contrast, national parks occupy less than 10% of this enormous country and they are some of its least restricted land. Most are open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day and cost little or nothing to visit. They are the people’s land, set aside in perpetuity for generations to come. Our living natural heritage.
Almost all of Australia’s 650 national parks are managed as Category II IUCN protected areas, with the prime objective of “protecting biodiversity, ecological structure and environmental processes while promoting education and recreation”. Note the last bit: promoting the presence of people, not locking them out. Just stick to the roads; bogs are for frogs not tyres. Take your garbage home, don’t kill or take anything and don’t annoy people. Be respectful, it’s not that onerous. The list of things you can’t do in national parks, is dwarfed by the things you can. Just use your imagination. Take pictures and deep breathes. Write poems and picnic under trees. Hide, seek and explore. Walk, watch and feel. Forget your troubles and remember your rainbows.
In Australia, we are lucky to have so many amazing national parks. From Kakadu to the Kimberly to Kosciuszko, they span the length and breadth of this country. Protected by rules and guarded by rangers. All overflowing with wonder and awe, those priceless rare earth potions that humans crave. Unlocked and open. Just leave no trace and don’t be a dickhead.
John McRae – https://mcdingo.substack.com/p/national-parks-are-not-locked-up
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