Parklands rangers may have hit on a new outdoor recreation activity; mud walking!

Recycling is the name of the game here at the Parklands depot, and this week rangers they came up with some unique uses for heavy duty plastic 44 gallon drums.

The secondhand blue drums were cut at top and bottom for use pouring concrete footings for bridge piles at Bullioh by the Tallangatta Rail Trail Advisory Group’s Trestle Bridge Restoration Team.

What to do with the left over ends? These were re-purposed to construct “moon boots” to enable staff and volunteers to walk across one of our region’s most significant, but muddy wetlands.

The wetland has dried up enough to undertake Willow control work that would be impossible to access in a “normal” season. However, getting to the willows is difficult as workboots just sink into the mud.

The new moon boots allow access all areas!

One of the benefits of the long dry Autumn is that it has extended the time in which to undertake environmental restoration woody weed control work. Usually the exotic trees have shut down and lost their leaves by April. However, this year all of nature is out of sync. Hopefully it won’t be long before it will be too wet for our new boots, until next year.