Illegal litter dumped in nature reserve

FRIENDS of Inverleigh Nature Conservation Reserve are disappointed at illegal rubbish dumping throughout the green space.

Last week Parks Victoria removed a truck load of litter from the park after the volunteer group reported the mess.

Group members are urging everyone to keep a look out and report any suspicious activity they see degrading the reserve.

“It’s a really special place and it belongs to the community,” Friends of Inverleigh Nature Conservation Reserve president Ben McCarthy said.

“It’s worth looking after. I was heartened to see how many people were disappointed, saddened or concerned by what they saw.

“A lot of the time it’s big quantities of large items and could be fire hazardous. Certain types of rubbish can pose an issue for birds when they might get tangled. The impacts are noticed.

“Things like the very unique Inverleigh spider orchid are worth protecting. It’s our hope and aim to highlight how special and how worth protecting it is.

“The local Parks Victoria team responded to hearing about the dumping and luckily just happened to have access to a truck to do a collection.

“But they found a lot more than what we shared. It’s great to have such good rangers on board, but it’s a sad use of their time. We can only encourage people to report negative activity to the police.

“If you see rubbish inform us, the shire or Parks so we can keep Inverleigh’s green space safe and beautiful for all.

“There’s a sad amount of dumping which takes place in the reserve. It takes up time and resources from Parks, when there’s much more important work to do, and is often challenging to remove.”

Friends group member Keith Windle said video surveillance was raised as a means to help apprehend the culprits.

“We have suggested several times that some video surveillance be put in place to catch people bringing rubbish in,” Windle said.

“To date that hasn’t happened but we hope in the future that may be able to be done.

“It’s been an ongoing problem. It’s likely that these people come at nighttime. It’s most unsightly.

“Probably the biggest problem is that Parks Victoria has to spend many hours collecting the rubbish. They have to pay the fairly high fees for disposal and all of it is detracting from the resources they could be putting to better use.”