Bushwalk Australia

Down anyone know what the significance of the stainless Parks and Wildlife tags with a 4 digit number that are often found on walking tracks?

e.g. the one on PB that has the number 1315

The sign in focus


The track in focus:

I think they are often a track monitoring marker. Someone from Parks may be able to further verify though. I found a few (that I was expecting) on the track down from Bonds Craig to Badger Flat. I'm not aware of any other purposes, unless they are some other sort of research plot.

Probably track monitoring as Paz stated. Parks also do/have done poo/toilet paper decomposition monitoring which sounds like a great job!!

I want to work for parks!

doogs wrote:Parks also do/have done poo/toilet paper decomposition monitoring which sounds like a great job!!

A sh*t job, but someone has to do it.

Actually there's some pretty useful applications from some of that work. I was told that a researcher named Leonie Crennan did a PhD on composting toilets. As well as applying the research in the Tassie highlands, it has been used all over the world, eg http://www.surferswithoutborders.org/Resources_files/Compost%20Toilet%20Manual.pdf

cheers

Peter

icefest wrote:The sign in focus

Which camera took this? Or was it digitally modified? The bokeh looked odd.

The effect is a technical product of a wet lens, an unsteady hand and freezing weather.
That is a direct screen-grab of the jpg made by the camera.

The camera was a panasonic DMC-TS4 http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/panasonic_lumix_dmc_ft4_review/

doogs wrote:Probably track monitoring as Paz stated. Parks also do/have done poo/toilet paper decomposition monitoring which sounds like a great job!!

Most will be PWS track monitoring and occasionally they will be at trampling trial sites. Most are in the World Heritage area. They have also been used by the flora branch of DPIPWE. Important that they are left where they are and not moved.

The poo monitoring was indeed Leonie and not PWS (although supported by PWS).

Interesting. Yes, a bit like the old days when we smeared Vaseline on filters to soften the surround.

pazzar wrote:I think they are often a track monitoring marker.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does that mean?

I have a vision of a PWS officer turning up and going "Yep, it's there!" and moving on? Is that all it is, or is there something more to it

Cheers

Track monitoring involves things like this form of tagging, and log book data is another commonly used method. The tags more likely are attached to physical data records of things such as erosion, depth, shrub/scrub cover, disease, trampling etc. The tags are used to be able to easily identify with past data. They are essentially a research plot. Tracks are monitored for many reasons. Some may be popular tracks that require further track work, others may be old tracks that are deliberately left to regenerate, others may be monitored to assess disease spread. It would be a great field to work in I think.

Thanks.
I noticed one of these on the descent from Pandani Knob and meant to ask about it when I got back but completely forgot.

bcshort wrote:

pazzar wrote:I think they are often a track monitoring marker.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does that mean?

I have a vision of a PWS officer turning up and going "Yep, it's there!" and moving on? Is that all it is, or is there something more to it

Cheers

Here is an quick note on what some of those markers are referring to - not sure any of the full documents are available online.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15217719

also try a google search with keywords like ... track monitoring impacts Tasmania Hawes Dixon Whinam

tastrax wrote:Here is an quick note on what some of those markers are referring to - not sure any of the full documents are available online.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15217719

also try a google search with keywords like ... track monitoring impacts Tasmania Hawes Dixon Whinam

Got it.

PM me for full article.

Sounds like that's it: