Mountain Journal

During the month of August, Friends of the Earth is inviting people to join a series of surveys to help determine the health of snow gum forests.

Snow gums are the iconic vegetation species of the Australian High country.

They are beautiful, vital for biodiversity and tourism, help hold snow pack which is released into river catchments, and hold deep cultural value for many people.

However, we are now seeing the beginning of ecosystem collapse across these forests – drought, dieback and successive fires have altered the structure, composition, and condition of snow gum woodlands dramatically. The surveys are intended to give a sense of how the forests are faring in multiple areas.

The surveys will happen through the month of August. To find out more and get involved, please check here.

Here is a quick report on the first set of surveys.

Dinner Plain report – initial survey

A small section around the village of Dinner Plain was assessed on July 17. Because human assets like houses and ski resorts are priortised during fire, forests around these areas have usually not been badly impacted by fire in recent decades. This is certainly the case at Dinner Plain, where forests around the village are in generally good condition with a mix of regrowth and mature trees and a healthy and diverse understorey (although within the village itself introduced species tend to dominate the ground story).

The first survey demonstrated that a healthy forest will have a mix of trees, including those in decline. What was obvious in the initial survey was that around 20% of mature trees were showing stress and decline, especially around the edge of buildings and other infrastructure. Dieback was also evident in clusters of trees.

Notes

• This is an area on the edge of Dinner Plain village so has been protected from fire for decades
• The forest is generally healthy, with many older trees and good restocking of smaller trees as seedlings (the small trees overwhelmingly look healthy), dieback rather than fire is evident.
• Although the forest looks very healthy and green from a distance, once you start to survey, the decline in mature trees is evident – many look stressed, with the canopy thinning out and dead. There are obvious pockets in decline where dieback is evident.