Hundreds of volunteer hours of restorative work on sensitive coastal foreshore areas has been lost thanks to the actions of heartless vandals.

Ninderry MP Dan Purdie inspected several sites at Coolum Beach where vandals had wrecked havoc on native vegetation and damaged signage, leaving behind a trail of broken bottles and rubbish in their wake.

“Less than a month ago I joined a group of volunteers from Coolum and Northshore Coast Care, who are down here every week weeding this area,” Mr Purdie said.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful, and it’s a real slap in the face for everyone who does the right thing to protect and preserve our natural environment.”

Coolum and North Shore Coast Care member and local resident Peter Brown, who has been involved with the group for nearly 18 years, described it as unthinking vandalism.

“Instead of wasting their energy on such senseless destruction, we would much prefer if they would join us for one of our regular weeding sessions, and do something positive with their time,” Mr Brown said.

Mr Purdie said the police, who are already over-stretched and under-resourced, simply didn’t have the time to be patrolling these areas around the clock.

“It would be nice to think these grubs might stop and take a good hard look at the long term effects of their actions, because next time, they might not be so lucky.

“I am sure a few hours of hard work cleaning up their mess might make them think twice before they do it again.

“We are blessed with a pristine environment here on the Coast, and one that we must all work hard to protect.”