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Mt Torbreck

From Baw Baw to The Brindabellas: snow gum surveys get underway.

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.

During August 2026, and culminating with events across the last weekend of August (29 & 30), Friends of the Earth is inviting resort and mountain loving communities to join us for a couple of hours of citizen science to better understand the health of local snow gum forests.

This can happen anywhere that snow gums grow naturally. This will involve walking (or possible skiing or snow shoeing) through an area of forest and recording the health of individual trees.

These surveys are now starting across the Alps. From the Mornington Peninsula and Baw Baw Plateau to Mt Feathertop, Thredbo and on to the Brindabella Range in the ACT, we now have 19 surveys locked in. Hopefully there will be more than 25 by the time all details are confirmed.

Continue reading “From Baw Baw to The Brindabellas: snow gum surveys get underway.” →

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Logging to intensify in Snobs Creek Valley

Logging has devastated so much of the Central Highlands, to the northeast and east of Melbourne. A strong hold of Mountain Ash forests, the public lands outside the national park estate are logged heavily. 

In recent decades this logging has been intense in the northern sections of the Central Highlands, to the east of the well known Cathedral Range, which is popular with bushwalkers and rock climbers. The Blue Range and Royston Range have been heavily logged, causing significant fragmentation of Mountain and Alpine Ash forests. Now logging is being intensified in the Snobs Creek Valley.

Continue reading “Logging to intensify in Snobs Creek Valley” →
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Logging threatens Leadbeater’s Possum habitat

Industrial scale clear-fell logging is NOW taking place in the Snobs Creek Valley.  The Central Highlands are the most heavily logged area in Australia.  The highly biodiverse ecosystem of mountain and alpine ash in the Rubicon State Forest has been virtually logged-out.

Lead beaters possum and Greater Gliders are widespread through the Snobs Valley. In one night 30 Greater Gliders were found in one of the proposed Vicforests logging coupes. These animals are listed as threatened species under the federal EPBC Act.

The three coupes currently being logged at Snobs are:  Shackle, Snobs 13 and Snobs 14 and other sensitive coupes are also being logged at Torbreck and Bull fight (see map).

Continue reading “Logging threatens Leadbeater’s Possum habitat” →

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