The winter of 2023 will be remembered as one of the saddest in Australian snow history. It started early, tapered off, then came back in with a vengence, but then disappeared again. All ski resorts closed early. lutruwita/ Tasmania fared even worse than the mainland, with no really solid snowfalls through the entire winter.
Here, John McLaine reflects on winters past.
The Backcountry Film Festival (BCFF) is produced each year by the Winter Wildlands Alliance, WWA (based in the USA) as a celebration of the human-powered winter experience and a gathering place for the backcountry snow sports community.
The Melbourne screening is co-hosted by RMIT Outdoors Club and Friends of the Earth, and is generally held in early May.
WWA produces a fantastic line up of films, generally from the northern hemisphere. At the Melbourne screening we are also keen to showcase locally made backcountry films (last years saw a screening of Racha, about a trip to Georgia, and The Australian Alp, a wonderful homage to Mt Feathertop.
If you are planning to produce a film from this winter and would like to screen it to an enthusiastic backcountry crowd at the 2024 BCFF, please get in touch.
Cam.walker@foe.org.au
Widespread wildfires in early 2016 caused devastating damage across large areas of the Tasmanian World Heritage Area, including significant sections of vegetation which is not fire adapted, such as Pencil Pine forests.
At the time, and in follow up investigations, it became clear that increased fire risk due to climate change posed an existential threat to these vegetation types. Then additional research confirmed that there was a trend towards more extreme fire seasons. Some researchers suggested that we reached a ‘tipping point’ sometime around the year 2000 and that, since then, there has been an increase in the number of lightning-caused fires and an increase in the average size of the fires, “resulting in a marked increase in the area burnt”.
On the mainland, fires increased significantly from about the same time. There were major fires in the Victorian high country in 1998, 2002/3, 2006/7, 2013 and 2019/20. Fires are becoming more common and more intense across the Alps.
It turns out that something similar was happening around the country. Fire regimes around Australia shifted abruptly 20 years ago.
Continue reading “‘Fire regimes around Australia shifted abruptly 20 years ago’”
‘Ash forests’ – forest comprised of Mountain Ash, Alpine Ash, or sometimes both – are some of the most iconic forest types in Victoria, or even the world. Covering around 500,000 ha of Victoria and stretching from the Otways to the north-eastern boundary with NSW, few who spend time in these forests – like driving along the Black Spur north-east of Melbourne – are left unimpressed by these tall trees. They are also home to species like the Leadbeater’s Possum and Greater Glider.
These forests have a complex relationship with fire: these forests can live with some fire – but not too much. Scientifically known as ‘obligate seeders’, after severe bushfire, ash forests are killed, but prolifically regenerates from canopy stored seed. The important point here is that these slowly regenerating forests cannot produce seed for 20 years after they regenerate from fire. This means they are highly vulnerable to shortened fire intervals – the exact challenge that land managers in Victoria are facing with climate change.
Once a mountain ash or alpine ash forest has burnt numerous times, it may eventually fail to regenerate, which can lead to population collapse and a change of ecosystem type. This sounds simple, but ecologically, this is dramatic. A tall forest – high in carbon stocks and habitat – changes rapidly to a short shrubland or grassland.
The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is a 4,200 kilometre track that runs from Mexico to Canada. Since Cheryl Strayed published her bestselling book about hiking the PCT, Wild (adapted into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon in 2014), it has become arguably the world’s best known long distance walking track. The dream of doing a long long walk through wild terrain is a dream for many people.
However:
‘Wildfires now regularly close vast sections of the trail in the late summer, and water sources in the desert and high Sierras are drying up, making remote regions virtually impassable. Hiking the trail end-to-end in one year, a bucket-list item for many long-distance backpackers, is now “almost impossible” due to climate change.’
There are many reports that numbers of walkers are down due to the current season and there being too much snow in long sections of the higher mountain areas of the route.
Wherever we are, whatever mountain range we are in, the reality of climate change gets ever harder to ignore.
Here is Australia, we have a different problem: lack of snow.
Despite sad snow conditions, the 6th Victorian backcountry festival will happen over three days in early September.
It will happen in and around the Mt Hotham resort, with all the usual components of the festival that we love – the tours, workshops, repair café, demo village, speakers program and outdoor bar. This year we have two festival hubs – The General, plus the Last Run Bar.
Please register for the festival here (you need to register to be able to book tours). Check below for full details.
Continue reading “VIC backcountry festival powers ahead despite low snow”
The NSW government is one step away from allowing aerial control of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park. After years of delay, and continued growth in horse populations, this is huge news and a crucial step for our threatened native wildlife and the fragile alpine ecosystems they call home.
The Victorian backcountry festival will be happening soon at Mt Hotham (September 1, 2, 3). Now in its 6th year, the festival offers tours, workshops, a demo village, ski in outdoor bar on a hilltop, repair cafe, avalanche safety courses, an opening night party, films and a speakers program.
You can register for the festival here. The full program will be posted on the backcountry festival home page shortly.
As part of the speakers program, there will be a great event at The General in Mt Hotham village, with presentations on how to turn concern for the mountains into meaningful action.
In the 2023 print edition of Mountain Journal (available as a pdf here), we acknowledged the legacy of Maisie Fawcett. Maisie was an ecological pioneer who is remembered for her ground breaking work in the Victorian high country. In this story from Karina Miotto, Latrobe University, Maisie’s legacy is considered in the broader context of her work as a woman operating in a time where society – and science – were heavily dominated by men.
A quiet achievement took place last summer in the Victorian Alps. Scientists gathered to re-measure botanical plots first set up more than 75 years ago by one of the pioneering women in science. This is the story of that woman.
Continue reading “Maisie Fawcett and her eternal legacy for Australian science”
We know that climate change is reducing the overall amount of snow we receive in Australia. The snow pack has been in decline since at least 1957. We also know that the loss of snow is being felt especially at lower elevations.
This is certainly being experienced this winter, where places like Tasmania and lower resorts like Mt Selwyn have had almost no snow.
Continue reading “Lower elevation resorts rapidly becoming non viable under climate change impacts”
Australia has always experienced erratic weather and climate extremes. But, as demonstrated in this cartoon from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), human induced climate change is now ‘super charging’ those natural cycles.
So, when we get an El Nino pattern, it is hotter and drier than it would have been otherwise. Same with the wetter conditions that come with a La Nina event.
The announcement that native forest logging will end in eastern Victoria on January 1, 2024 is great news for the forests of the high country.
We wrote a brief piece explaining the implications of the announcement here.
As we noted in that story, this means the state will be spared another six years of intensive logging and allow us to start the generations long work of restoring a landscape that has been deeply impacted by intensive logging and repeat fires in recent decades.
However, significant areas of the high country are still included in an updated Timber Release Plan (TRP) which could be logged before the January 1 cutoff date.
We are watching a number of key areas, including Mt Stirling, the headwaters of the Little Dargo, and Mt Wills area to ensure that no last minute ‘cut and run’ logging occurs.
It is good to note that Alpine Resorts Victoria is saying that proposed logging at Mt Stirling ‘may not proceed given the cessation of logging by January 1, 2024’.
The road to the planned coupes on Mt Stirling will be closed until the end of winter. But if you are up in the mountains, please keep an eye open for any last minute logging. And let us know if you see anything: cam.walker@foe.org.au
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