Letter to the Editor: The conundrum of cars on beaches

DEAR News Of The Area,

WHY do we allow people to drive on our beaches?

A recent meta-study by University of the Sunshine Coast Professor of Marine Science, Thomas Schlacher, confirms that driving 4WD vehicles on beaches has serious environmental impacts.

The vast majority of 4WD users follow the rules and do their best to avoid deliberate harm.

The research, however, demonstrates that there is no such thing as a low-impact beach drive from an environmental perspective.

Every pair of tyre tracks crush the pippies and other creatures that live in the littoral, or inter-tidal, zone.

Over time this can turn the beach into a barren wasteland.

The tyre tracks can also act as obstacles to hatching sea turtles, preventing them from reaching the sea at their most vulnerable time.

The beaches are a community asset and need to be managed for the long term benefit of the community.

This should mean that we act to restrict those activities that we know to be degrading and destroying the very things we wish to enjoy.

We need to have a community wide conversation about, perhaps, eliminating the driving of 4WD vehicles on certain beaches.

Regards,
Peter SOBEY,
Valla.