The Australian Alps, a powerful teacher

Headwaters of the Snowy River

The following comes from the Australian Alps national parks Co-operative Management Program.

“The Australian Alps Education Kit is designed for students, teachers and anyone else keen to learn about this spectacular region of Australia. These educational materials form an organised resource focusing on iconic, awe-inspiring and accessible areas within the Australian Alps.

The contents range from the resilient yet fragile plant communities that grow in the harsh alpine environment, to thecultural impact of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electricity Scheme; and from the First People’s connection with the mountain landscape to the Alps’ cycles of weather and climate”.

You can find the kit here.

There is a sheet on Aboriginal people and the alps available here.

Lake Mountain music festival

burnt snow gums

From the Lake Mountain Alpine Resort:

“Get out your dancing shoes and head to Lake Mountain over the Labour Day March weekend – when the Mountain will hold the “Thank You Victoria Lake Mountain Music Festival” on Sunday March 11, 2012 to thank Victorians for their contribution to the mountain’s recovery from the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires”.

“The festival, featuring performances by artists including Deb Conway & Willy Zygier, is an opportunity for Victorians who donated to the Black Saturday Appeal to see how the mountain has recovered – and experience the range of new summer activities”.

“Lake Mountain Alpine Resort is back in business – and bigger and better than ever – with new summer activities including dune buggies and flying foxes, a new function centre and an action packed winter planned for 2012″.

(I’ll save my tirade about the stupidity of having dune buggies on the mountain for another day …)

Full details here.

Water bomber called in for Mount Buller fire

After the 2003 fires, Mt Stirling

Its been a wonderfully quiet summer so far in terms of bush fire across the alps. Lets hope it stays that way.

This report comes from ABC News.

An aerial water bomber is being used to control a fire near Mount Buller.

The DSE says smoke might be visible in nearby towns including Mirimbah, Mount Buller, Sawmill Settlement and Merrijig.

It is believed the fire started last night and may have been caused by lightning.

The CFA website reports the fire as being 5km SE of Sawmill Settlement, in the Round Hill area, of 2ha size, and under control as of this afternoon.

Will cattle grazing continue in Victoria’s Alpine National Park?

UPDATE: On tuesday January 31, Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke banned cattle grazing in the state’s Alpine National Park.

Mr Burke rejected the state government’s proposal to reintroduce 400 cattle into the park to graze for up to five months a year for five years.

He said his decision was based on departmental advice that cattle grazing would damage the pristine environment, rather than his own personal opposition to the proposal.

‘Mountain cattlemen ignore history in claiming their place in the Alps’. Maybe it’s time to remember some of the other voices of the mountains? Article available here.

The following comes from ABC Rural.

Image: VNPA

Cattlemen says it’s almost too late to put cattle into Victoria’s Alpine National Park this summer.

It’s been two weeks since Federal Minister for Environment, Tony Burke, was expected to make a decision on whether farmers can resume a cattle grazing trial in the Park.

Mark Coleman, president of the Mountain Cattleman’s Association, says the situation has become too caught up in politics and Minister Burke needs to make a decision.

“I believe that the fate of that alpine area rests at his feet and next time we do get a major holocaust through there where our complete ecosystems are completely wiped out from these super hot fires.

“I just hope he’ll be accountable for that till the day he dies.”

Personally I love the statement from the MCAV that “the situation has become too caught up in politics”. Its been about politics from day 1, and the MCAV were quite happy to ‘secretly’ put cattle back in the Park and be involved in ‘politics’ when it suited them. Yet suddenly they’re concerned about politics coming into play – sounds like a case of the ‘Pot calling the Kettle Black’.

Article: Another reminder that alpine grazing is just about politics.

Greetings from Cradle Mountain

Castlemaine-based artist Ben Laycock continues his series of reports from mountainous places, this time he’s fresh off the Overland Track. Rumour has it that his musically inclined party was welcomed by some travellers but not universally accepted on the trails. One would have thought that if you wanted a quiet ‘nature experience’ you wouldn’t be staying in a hut on one of the busiest walking tracks in the country in peak season …. but as they say, ‘you can’t please all the hikers all the time’.

His report-back from the walk, which involves limited accounts of littering, cannibalism and minor embellishment of facts, will upset fans of Lord of the Rings and can be found here.

Residents and activists defending old forests at Toolangi

The tree sit at Toolangi

For the past two days, more than 30 people from the Central Highlands Action Group and local Toolangi and Healesville residents have been occupying a large logging coupe on Yellowdindi rd in Toolangi state forest.

Two 30m tree sits, which are suspended by ropes attached to two log-harvesters and two ‘bunnies’ with their arms locked through the tracks of a third machine have ensured that no clear-felling took place in the coupe on Monday January 16.

Much of the Toolangi forests were burnt in the fires of 2009. One Toolangi local said that “residents are concerned that following the Black Saturday fires in 2009 that clear-fell logging in the area will increase the risk of mega-fires due to the large amount of wood waste which is left behind in coupes. The resulting mono-species regeneration after logging operations is far more combustible than the mature age forests which are being removed. This is a recipe for further fire disasters”. They point to research by eminent forest ecologist Dr David Lindenmayer, which clearly indicates that clear-felling practices in the Central highlands notably increases fire risk and thus threatens the whole region.

Activists also point to other values of the forests: “These forests give us protection against climate change and provide habitat for native fauna which is such a feature of this area.”

There is a report available here.

These images by Emma-Jayne Heather.

the coupe at Yellowdindi

Climate Change Pushing Alpine Plants Off the Mountain

This piece comes from Treehugger, and looks at impacts in the European Alps, but obviously warming of alpine environments is a real issue here in Australia as well (for instance, see the recent piece Alps could be snow free by 2050). The author is David DeFranza.

Aster bellidiastrum. Image: Alpine Exploratory

It seems obvious: As the average temperatures of alpine climates increase, cold-loving plant and animal species are forced to move up to higher elevations to find the conditions they are best suited for. New research, however, has found a surprise in this simple process—that it’s happening much faster than previously thought.

By analyzing plant samples from 60 summits in 13 European nations, researchers found that the phenomenon is continental in scale. Michael Gottfried, a researcher with the Austria-based Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments, explained that the team “expected to find a greater number of warm-loving plants at higher altitudes, but we did not expect to find such a significant change in such a short space of time

“Many cold-loving species are literally running out of mountain,” he continued, “in some of the lower mountains in Europe, we could see alpine meadows disappearing and dwarf shrubs taking over within the next few decades.”

Researchers compared data collected between 2001 and 2008, indicating the change is happening much more quickly than previously thought.

The Twins

Mid summer. Time to be out in the hills. I have been out exploring some of the less known peaks in the Vic High

Twins summit

Country, like Big Hill, south of Mt Beauty, and Mt Sugarloaf just near the old ticket station on the Mt Hotham road above Harrietville.

The stand out mountain so far has been the Twins, a bulky, almost hump-backed mountain just south-west of Mt St Bernard in the Central Alps.

Although it is generally seen from the Great Alpine Road, this peak really presents itself from the south side, with impressive slopes and wonderful views and a sense of remoteness despite being barely 9 km in a straight line from Hotham village.

There are some on notes here.

Review: Tasmanian Summits to Sleep On

The title of this book pretty much sums it all up: Tasmanian summits to sleep on. This is a gorgeous, large format photo book, focused on 7 peaks that the author, Kevin Doran, has explored and camped out on, from Cradle Mountain in the north and down to Mount Hopetoun in the south west.

This is a large format ‘coffee table style book, with brief stories on seven peaks and fantastic images, and is a celebration both of life time friendships and a long term love affair with Tasmania’s mountain country.

There is a review here.

The Bluff

Looking over The Bluff and Mt Eadley Stoney towards the Crosscut Saw

If you have ever skied or boarded at Mt Buller, the Bluff is probably familiar, even if you don’t know its name. It’s the prominent and rocky, long mountain out on the skyline on your right as you ski back to the village down Bourke Street.

Unlike some of its neighbours, like Mt Buller and Stirling, The Bluff doesn’t have a road or other developments on it, so retains a wildness that is lacking on some other peaks in the area. It is an atmospheric mountain, with loads of character. It has great walking and backcountry skiing and boarding.

The following is an appreciation of this gorgeous mountain.