Hikers urged to stop using sticks as walking aids as rangers call out damage to environment

When hiking through a national park, it may seem harmless to pick up a stick from the bush and use it as a type of walking aid.

But rangers in central Queensland’s Carnarvon National Park say this can cause significant damage to the environment.

"Visitors might think, 'it’s only one stick', but it can have a very large, accumulated effect over time," Carnarvon national park ranger in charge Lindie Pasma said.

"The sticks are used by the little creatures [and plants] of the national park, the echidnas burrowing underneath it … insects, lizards, birds, fungi and moss.

"The removal of just one stick can impact these animals in lots of different ways. For echidnas, they’re rummaging around the undergrowth looking for food … so you’re taking away the sticks with all the insects in it.

"That’s then having an impact on the echidnas and the birds and all the other things using that environment."

Ms Pasma said rangers had noticed a rise in the number of sticks being left at walking track exits matching an increase in visitation over winter.

"In April alone, rangers collected 146 walking sticks that had been left at Crossing 1 exit," she said.

"This is only a small portion of walking sticks being picked up daily by visitors to help them across creek crossings or steep sections of the walk."

Simon Ling is the co-owner of Australian Nature Guides and has been taking visitors through the Carnarvon National Park on tours for 20 years.

“We carry a couple of spare walking poles in our backpacks in case we wind up with clients who feel the need to have some assistance on the trails so that they don’t pick up walking sticks."

He said 75,000 people visit the national park every year and hikers picking up sticks as walking aids can become an "ecological nightmare" when done in volume.

"If you think about it from that perspective, if only 10 per cent of visitors to Carnarvon Gorge pick up a stick and shift it, that’s 7,500 sticks going walkabout each year," Mr Ling said.

"Every stick will either be habitat or food for organisms.

"The key message to get across is that old adage, 'you’re not supposed to take anything but photographs and leave nothing but footprints' and if you stick to that principle you’re pretty well right.

"It means anything that’s living or dead in a national park should be left as it is."

Ms Pasma said it was great to see so many people visiting the national park, but urged them to do their research about the trails and whether they would need specialised hiking poles.

"I think a lot of people might just be thinking 'it’s just one stick', but they don’t see the sheer number of sticks that we are picking up and having to redistribute and put back into the bush.

“Hiking poles not only reduce the need for hikers to remove sticks from the natural environment, but they are also useful for reducing the impact on walker’s legs, knees and ankles, can be a valuable safety device, and can be used over and over again."