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Managing human waste on the Main Range

With COVID-19 restrictions reducing the number of people able to ski and ride in resort, this will certainly be the ‘winter of the backcountry’.

This brings a range of management issues, as inexperienced and, potentially, under equipped, people head out into what can be serious terrain and sometimes crazy weather.

There is also another dimension to this: what to do with the waste that will be brought into the backcountry, including human waste (aka Poo).

The following information comes from the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service:

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Poll shows Eden-Monaro voters want action on feral horses

A new poll of Eden-Monaro voters released today has found that most people want feral horses removed from Kosciuszko National Park, where horse numbers have tripled in the past five years.

Ahead of the July 4 by-election, an independent poll asked 643 Eden-Monaro voters what should be done about feral horses, which are devastating Kosciuszko National Park’s unique plants and animals and destroying its once pristine waterways.

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Lake Rodway commercial hut proposal reaches planning stage

The proposal for a commercial hut (a lodge) at Lake Rodway, below Cradle Mountain, has been on the cards for several years. It was one of the first proposals submitted to the Tasmanian government’s Expressions of Interest process to encourage commercial development in national parks and World Heritage Areas in 2015.

The proposal was originally called the ‘Cradle Base Camp Experience’. The proponent is the Tasmanian Walking Company (TWC), which currently operates the Cradle Huts, Bay of Fires and Three Capes (private huts) walks.

The proposal has now reached the detailed planning stage, with a Parks and Wildlife Service Reserve Activity Assessment (RAA) expected in the next few months. The TWC stated that this would be a Level 4 RAA (the highest level of scrutiny which includes public comment).

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Environmental issues in the Eden Monaro byelection

The long debate over how to handle populations of wild horses in the Australian Alps continues. While Victoria waits for the outcome to an appeal to a Supreme Court case about Park Victoria’s plan to start culling horses, the issue has come into sharp focus in NSW because of the byelection in the Eden Monaro electorate. The group Reclaim Kosci, which is campaigning to have horses removed from the Kosciuszko National Park has said “If candidates for the Eden-Monaro by-election want to prove they care for the environment, they need to call for action to protect the electorate’s iconic Kosciuszko National Park.”

“Tourism, jobs, catchments, Indigenous heritage, motorist and camper safety, and wildlife are under serious threat.”
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Heading to the Backcountry this Season? Stay safe with a AST1 Course

If you’re a Splitboarder and want to be part of an EXTENDED Alpine Safety Training (AST1) course in Victoria – a collaboration between Alpine Access Australia and the Let’s Split crew – read on!

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Black Lives Matter and the outdoor community

The death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis has triggered global protests. From religious groups to trade unions, students to Indigenous people, there has been an outpouring of anger and solidarity. Tens of thousands of people have marched in Australia and street protests continue each day in the USA.

Many in the outdoors community and many outdoor brands in the USA have also expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Here are a few examples.

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Backcountry 2020 – what’s the go?

With ski resorts announcing their plans for the season (and resorts having considerable control over access to many backcountry skiing and riding access points) we now have a sense of what winter will look like.

The key message is that if you’re planning to access backcountry via a resort you need to organise entry before you go. But there are many options outside resort areas.

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Barilaro calls for horse removal from Kosciuszko National Park to stop

Wild horses, along with other feral species, have inflicted enormous damage on the alpine and sub alpine environments of the Snowy Mountains for decades.

There has been a long campaign to have numbers of horses reduced, which has been resisted by people who claim the horses have a ‘cultural’ claim to be in the mountains. In a significant development, in February 2020, NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean announced emergency post-bushfire measures aimed at reducing horse numbers in three areas in northern Kosciuszko that are being damaged by horses – Boggy/Kiandra, Nungar and Cooleman plains.

This was done with the support from NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro. However, now Mr Barilaro has reneged in his support for bushfire emergency horse removal measures, calling for horse removal from Kosciuszko National Park to stop.

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‘Logging operations shut down in Big Pats Creek, Warburton, Kinglake ranges and Baw Baw’

Logging continued in many places around the country during the COVID-19 lock down. Environmental activists and locals concerned about logging operations were disciplined and largely stayed at home during the pandemic.

Now, this long wait has overflowed into action. In Tasmania, people have occupied trees in forest being cut near Mt Field. On the south coast of NSW, the community of Manyana is opposing the destruction of unburnt forest for a housing development, and now actions have happened across the Central Highlands of Victoria. This follows sustained action by locals at Big Pats Creek near Warburton.

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The Winter of Awesome

Now that we know that ski resorts will be open at least for some of the winter we can really get on with our planning. In NSW an announcement on the ski season is expected this week, and the season will start in VIC from June 22. I hope this helps with your planning for trips and events. Here are some events that I am aware of. Please feel free to send in details on others.

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Approval of Snowy 2.0 EIS sets ‘appalling precedent’

The Snowy Hydro 2.0 expansion started as a good idea. As the scale of the physical impact of the project became more obvious during the approvals process, environmental groups started to oppose it. After the release of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) the NSW National Parks Association said that the plan ‘proposes a completely unacceptable level of damage to Kosciusko National Park’.

It has now received planning approval from the NSW state government, despite ongoing objections over the project’s environmental impacts.

Continue reading “Approval of Snowy 2.0 EIS sets ‘appalling precedent’” →

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Old forests slow fire

We know that climate change is driving longer and more intense fire seasons. We know that fuel reduction can greatly reduce the spread and intensity of wildfire. However, in extreme fire conditions, the value of fuel reduction burning is reduced, and fires will burn through almost anything, regardless of recent fuel reduction treatment an area may have had. We also know that logging will make forests more flammable because of the loss of more humid micro climates and thick growth of the seedlings that will occur after logging. But we also know that older forests are less fire prone, burn less intensely than regrowth forests, and have the ability to slow down fires as they move through the landscape.

This has been highlighted again in research called Propensities of Old Growth, Mature and Regrowth Wet Eucalypt Forest, and Eucalyptus nitens Plantation, to Burn During Wildfire and Suffer Fire-Induced Crown Death by Suyanti Winoto-Lewin, Jennifer C Sanger and James B Kirkpatrick at the University of Tasmania. It highlights the value of older forests in slowing fire. (Available here).

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