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Environment, news, culture from the Australian Alps

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Cam Walker

I work with Friends of the Earth, and live in Castlemaine in Central Victoria, Australia. Activist, mountain enthusiast, telemark skier, volunteer firefighter.

Alpine park grazing challenged

The following comes from the Victorian National Parks Association,:

Wonnangatta River
Wonnangatta River

Today we took the first steps in our legal challenge against Alpine cattle grazing.

This case marks the first time in our 60 year history that the Victorian National Parks Association has taken the extraordinary step of launching court proceedings to protect national parks – the cornerstone of our conservation efforts – from damaging cattle grazing. 
Represented by Environmental Justice Australia and barristers Richard Niall QC and Andrew Walker, we headed to the Supreme Court of Victoria for a directions hearing on the case. The court set a time in early July 2014 for a further hearing. 
According to Felicity Millner, Director of Litigation at Environmental Justice Australia and part of our legal team, today’s hearing takes us one step closer to getting a decision from the court about whether it is legal for the government to put cattle in the national park. 
At the final hearing of the case, we will be arguing the laws do not allow cattle in the Alpine National Park. 
Ensuring the integrity of national parks is an investment in the future. Whether we win or lose this legal test case, the idea and importance of national parks as a haven for people and nature must be defended.
To fight this campaign we need to raise money from visionary people in Victoria. We are hoping you are one of those people. 
We have to take this legal action now.  In March this year, 60 cattle were rushed back into the Wonnangatta Valley, part of the heritage-listed Alpine National Park, under a flawed fire management trial by the Napthine Government.
The cattle have now left, but will be back next summer, when up to 300 head of cattle will do even more damage.
These ‘cattle grazing trials’ have been roundly criticised as flawed science that will contribute little, if anything, to our understanding of fire management. The evidence speaks for itself, you can read all about it on our website.
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warmer weather, shorter ski season?

The most recent assessment of Australian weather trends (seasonal update: abnormal autumn 2014) from the Climate Council warns of a warmer than average winter. Professor Will Steffen says that “warmer weather increases the odds that the ski season will be shorter”.

“The unseasonably warm conditions that many regions of Australia experienced in April and May are likely to continue through winter. Higher-than-average maximum and minimum temperatures are likely over most of the country with the chances of warmer-than-average conditions being particularly high for the southern half of the continent.

With a warmer winter on the cards this year, the prospect of increasing intensity and frequency of winter warm spells could lengthen Australia’s bushfire season and worsen drought conditions”.

As skiers and boarders will remember from last winter, when overall temperatures are warmer than usual, it doesn’t take much to lose snow base when there are precipitation events. Victoria was especially hard hit last year, with loss of the entire base in July after a reasonable start to the winter in June.

The good news is that we can do something about this if we choose to do so:

“These trends can be turned around. Australians have an opportunity to rapidly and significantly reduce our CO2 emissions to help stabilise the climate and halt the current trend towards more extreme weather events and hotter average temperatures”.

 

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Australian backcountry film festival – Spring 2014

For the past four years, the backcountry film festival has been attracting good numbers of people and is showing in more locations.

It seems like it might be time to have our own festival – with films made in Australia.

At previous Melbourne shows, we have added a film about skiing and boarding on The Bluff, and this year saw OFF GRID, a new effort on Mt Bogong from SoO Airtime.

The plan is to hold an Australian backcountry film festival in late spring 2014 with only local content. There are some fantastic film makers out there, and we hope to be able to showcase some of these.

We are seeking expressions of interest from film makers who would like to submit films.

Any human and gravity powered backcountry adventure would be welcome: walking, skiing, boarding, MTBing, paddling, climbing, …

As this is an entirely volunteer effort, with no budget, we are not able to offer payment for showing the films.

Films can be in two length categories. We hope to show an hours worth of short films (3 to 7 minutes) then up to 2 longer films (30 – 40 minutes).

At this point we are looking at doing a Melbourne showing, with the ability to offer the festival to other places once its packaged up.

If you’re keen, please get in touch: cam.walker@foe.org.au

And get out there and getting filming!

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Introducing The Watershed

6a00d8341d07fd53ef01a3fd06febb970b-500wiAs we wait patiently for cooler weather and serious snow falls, you may enjoy this one. Its the pilot issue of a newsprint publication.

The previous one focused on all things snow and was called The Drift.

The Watershed is a collaborative newsprint publication between The Usual (‘The Usual is a creative team with a penchant for the outdoors’) and Patagonia to celebrate the joy of simple fly fishing, healthy rivers, dam busting, and sustainably sourced food.

The Watershed features Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia fly fishing ambassador April Vokey, DamNation producer Matt Stoecker, director Travis Rummel, 1% for the Planet co-founder Craig Mathews, dam buster Katie Lee. With contributions by Malcolm Johnson, Jeremy Koreski, Paul Greenberg, Jeanine Pesce, Keith Malloy, Trevor Gordon, Stefan Knecht, Jim Mangan, and others.

Pick up your  Spring/Summer 2014 copy at select Patagonia stores worldwide.

You can read it here.

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Perisher Peak Festival

a1June 6 – 9

The Perisher Valley in NSW’s Snowy Mountains will open the 2014 Australian Winter Ski Season with a vibrant 4 day festival packed with live music at the snow over the June long weekend.

From the organisers:

“The 6th Perisher Snowy Mountains of Music-Peak Festival will run from Friday 6th June to Monday 9th June 2014 and is presented by the Perisher Resorts Chamber of Commerce and led by veteran musician David De Santi who has been the Artistic Director of the famed Illawarra Folk Festival since 1996 and is a member of one of Australia’s most famous bush bands, Wongawilli. With Dave De Santi at the helm you can expect to hear some great new sounds from here and overseas and walk away with an experience to remember. Read more about David here.

This is your opportunity to soak up the magic of the snow fields whilst listening to some of our best musicians step up to the mic with a mix of world, folk, roots, celtic, acoustic, traditional music, song, dance, poetry and yarnspinning. Peak will take place across 8 indoor venues in Perisher Valley, Smiggin Holes and Guthega Alpine Village”.

Full details here.

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Leaves From An Australian Forest Protest

Ron coverIn the late 1980’s the campaign to save the majestic forests of the South East New South Wales hinged on a Base Camp set up at Reedy Creek to provide a jumping off point for Direct Action.

The forest protests were having limited effect and getting very little media. Late one night, around the campfire, a small group of greenies discussed their ’perfect’ action. It turned out that each of us dreamed the same dream; getting away from the mass arrest protests of the day where people simply presented themselves en-mass for arrest and moving up into the trees where the Police couldn’t reach us and staying there – that is how the first long-term tree action on mainland Australia was born.

This is a poetic memoir of the actions that followed by Ron Fletcher, who was a central figure in the campaign. As Ron notes “while much of those forests has since been sacrificed to the wood chippers greed, the spirit and skills developed through Nullica and subsequent SE forest protests continued and grew to be followed by many powerful platform protests and protestors”.

You can read a review and order the book here.

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Alpine grazing. It’s not just a bumper sticker, it’s a hypothesis

fire damage on Great Alpine Road
fire damage on Great Alpine Road

Its just not a credible one.

Latrobe University recently hosted a significant event organised by the Research Centre for Applied Alpine Ecology on the much contested topic of alpine grazing and whether it is a useful management tool to reduce fire intensity.

It featured two researchers with long term research backgrounds in the realm of fire and grazing.

A report is available here.

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OFF GRID – backcountry skiing on Mt Bogong

“In 2012 seven adventurous skiers explored the Australian High Country. They camped, skied and filmed across one week’.

This short film is the result. Focused on the experience of climbing and riding on Mt Bogong and its ‘camo snow’, OFF GRID is a celebration of Australian backcountry skiing and boarding.

OFF GRID was produced by Joey Corcoran and Watkin McLennan of SoO Airtime (“a movie, an event, a community and bunch of Australian skiers that love sharing their Airtime”).

It premiered at the Melbourne showing of the Backcountry film festival in May 2014.

You can see it here.

Find Soo Airtime on Facebook.

 

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challenge to alpine grazing

The following update comes from the Victorian National Parks Association.

Today we lodged papers in the Supreme Court of Victoria challenging the Napthine Government’s reintroduction of cattle grazing to the Alpine National Park.

The whole idea of national parks is to conserve nature for future generations, and for its own sake. These natural environments are irreplaceable – a gift to the present, and a legacy for the future.

But by insisting on putting cattle back into the Alpine National Park the Victorian Government is ignoring the intention of the law that established national parks.

Now that all other avenues of protecting the national park have been thwarted we have been forced to take legal action.

Both the state and federal governments have failed in their duty to protect the Alpine National Park.

This is a legal test case. No one has ever tried it before, so we can’t guarantee we will win.

But in our view there is no other option. We have to take this brave step.

Ensuring the integrity of national parks is an investment in the future. Whether we win or lose this legal test case, the idea and importance of national parks as a haven for people and nature must be defended.

To fight this campaign we need to raise money from visionary people in Victoria. We’re hoping you are one of those people.

This campaign is vital. It’s not just about stopping cattle, it’s also about putting a stop to all the other attempts to exploit and commercialise our national parks in ways that irreversibly damage them for future generations.

We have to take this legal action now.  In March this year, 60 cattle were rushed back into the Wonnangatta Valley, part of the heritage-listed Alpine National Park, by your government as part of a flawed fire management trial.

These ‘cattle grazing trials’ have been roundly criticised as flawed science that will contribute little, if anything, to our understanding of fire management. The evidence speaks for itself, you can read it on our website.

We have to stop them going back in again over the coming 2014-15 summer when more cattle (up to 300) will do even more damage!

The mountain cattlemen have clearly said they want to return cattle to the entire Alpine National Park, and that this ‘trial’ is just the starting point.

With a looming state election, the Napthine Government and the Labor opposition must clarify their policy on these ‘scientific’ cattle grazing trials.

Victorians have a right to know before the next state election if they are voting for a small-scale scientific trial, the full-scale return of cattle grazing to the Alpine National Park or for the exclusion of cattle from the park once and for all.

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Backcountry film festival, Melbourne, May 14

The Melbourne show for 2014 will be held on

Wednesday the 14th May

FBE Theatre 1, 111 Barry St (Melbourne Uni), Carlton. Between Pelham and Gratton streets, short walk from #19 and #59 trams up Elizabeth street.

From 6.30pm, films start at 7pm.

Suggested donation: $8 conc & students/ $12 waged.

NB: please note that this year, because of the venue, we won’t have drinks for sale.

Co-hosted with Melbourne University Ski Club.

MUSki

 

FoEA logo colour

The festival is run by not-for-profit hosts, and in Australia, all funds raised will support the Friends of the Earth (FoE) climate campaign. Funds will go to FoE’s work with regional communities to stop the development of new coal mines and unconventional gas drilling across southern Victoria.

Facebook event page here: please feel free to invite your friends.

Full details here.

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The King of Hotham: My Father

This book is a memoir by Gillian Salmon of the remarkable life and times of her father, Lindsay Salmon, who played a key role in the development of Mt Hotham, including the establishment of the Mount Hotham Ski School and the construction of the iconic Drift Chalet.

It covers his time in the mountains of north eastern Victoria, broken by World War II. On his return, he starts work on the Drift Chalet. It opens in 1952 and ‘offers a tradition of hospitality unmatched at Mount Hotham since.’

Check here for the full review.

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winter on it’s way

With a couple of good dustings across the Alps in early May, everyone is getting impatient for winter. Thoughts turn to the big questions in life: when will we get that first serious dump? What trips am I going to do? Do I need any new gear?

If you’re getting ready for the first serious falls and opening weekend, maybe it’s time to think about:

ethical gear.

The Green and Sustainable gear site brings together information and listings on green and ethical outdoor gear, including what is still produced locally.

There are also a growing number of outdoor equipment producers who are paying attention to ensuring they have good working conditions in their factories. A lower impact snow industry is certainly getting closer every year – but only if we support it.

our carbon footprint.

Here in Australia, a trip to the snow usually means a lot of hours sitting in a car. But most resorts are well serviced by buses. Perhaps think of doing at least one trip a year by bus, as a practical way of reducing your impact. There are various ‘carbon calculators’ that are available so you can measure – and hopefully – reduce the impacts of your lifestyle.

If you’re a backcountry skier/ boarder, one option is to use buses to do longer tours: eg starting at Falls Creek and ending at Hotham.

hassle the resorts.

Most Australian ski resorts have given up on acting in any meaningful ay to reduce their contribution to global arming. In the US and Europe, many resorts are implementing a range of energy efficiency programs, sourcing green power (and even producing their own) and other measures. Resorts here have abandoned meaningful commitment to reducing impact.

If you stay in a resort, why not give them some feedback about the need for them to show leadership in responding to climate change?

sunscreen.

Up high, just that bit closer to the sun, we need our sunblock. But what about the hidden nasties? Check here for a guide to nano free sunscreens.

keep your recycling hat on.

At home, most of us nowdays think about the little things that make a big difference: separating the rubbish from the recycling, turning off the lights when we leave the room, keeping an eye on water and energy use. A big problem with the massive influx of people to resorts in winter is that lots of them seem to leave their conscience at home when they are on holidays. Wasteful behaviour, lower recycling rates, cranking up the heating while leaving the door open. We’ve all seen it.

But if we can look after these things at home, we can certainly do it while on holidays …

protecting the Alps.

Climate change is an ever a greater risk to the mountains that we love and enjoy. Please think about supporting one of the groups that campaign on climate change or protecting the Alps.

A few ideas here:

Friends of the Earth Australia

Protect Our Winters

More ideas and contacts for local groups here.

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