In perhaps the final act of the long running alpine grazing saga, the Victorian government has introduced legislation into Parliament banning grazing in the Alpine National Park, as well as in the River Red Gum national parks.
The introduction of the National Parks Amendment (Prohibiting Cattle Grazing) Bill 2015 will amend the National Parks Act 1975 to prohibit cattle grazing for any purpose in these national parks.
The following comes from Rob Harris at The Weekly Times. It’s always amusing to see the mountain cattlemen’s association representative bemoaning the fact that the issue has become ‘political’. Does he honestly want to say that it wasn’t a ‘political’ act when the Coalition originally rushed cattle into the Alpine Park in secret without having an actual scientific plan around the grazing trial? Of course not, its been about politics from day one.
What is telling from this report is the fact that the Coalition government classified the first year’s grazing results as being “cabinet-in-confidence”. This makes it difficult for the findings to be put into the public domain. If the results supported the argument that ‘grazing reduces blazing’ why wouldn’t they have made them public?
Continue reading “Scientific research from alpine cattle grazing trial ’inconclusive’”
In the latest development in the decades long saga over cattle grazing in the Alpine National Park, the new Victorian government has confirmed it has stopped the grazing trial established by the previous Coalition government.
For background on this issue check here.
The following comes from Rob Harris at The Weekly Times.
Continue reading “Victorian government stops Alpine grazing trial”
Now, here’s a serious blast from the past (apologies for the bad pun). While looking through some old files I found an article from 1978 from the Friends of the Earth (FoE) magazine, Chain Reaction (number 4(1), 1978) about the threat of uranium mining in the Victorian Alps.
Back in the mid 1970s, a German company called Urangesellschaft had exploration rights to a very large area of the Alps, from near Tolmie near Mansfield, right down almost as far as Bairnsdale. They had a total of almost 6,000 square kilometres of land under license and this included the Avon wilderness area and large sections of the Wonnangatta valley.
The following comes from the Victorian National Parks Association,:
Today we took the first steps in our legal challenge against Alpine cattle 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.
The Age is reporting that:
Cattle have returned to the Alpine National Park for the first time in three years, with animals released in recent days under the Napthine government’s grazing trial.
It is understood that a little under 60 cows were brought into the park either on Wednesday night or Thursday morning, marking the start of the program.
The move follows the state government getting approval for its grazing plans from federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt earlier this month. The state government says the trial will test whether cattle grazing lowers bushfire risk by reducing fuel loads.
As pointed out by Phil Ingamells of the Victorian National Parks Association:
“the trial was not science, rather a political promise to the cattlemen to protect their privileged grazing rights in the park”.
“Decades of evidence show how much grazing harms the park. But it does nothing to reduce grazing risk,” he said.
Read more in the article by Tom Arup here.
And background on the trial here.
Environmental policy in a time of climate change
The state government has doggedly pursued this grazing trial since it came to power, and the environment minister Ryan Smith has been closely involved in efforts to get cattle back into the park. The first attempt was knocked back by the previous federal government. The current proposal has recently been approved by Coalition Minister Greg Hunt.
Victoria’s environment is in bad shape. Imagine how things could be improved if Mr Smith put as much effort into reducing Victoria’s contribution to climate change. Or protecting Mallacoota from the destructive development at Bastion Point. Or if he acted to protect the habitat of the endangered Leadbeaters Possum which is threatened by logging. Or … (insert any number of other issues here: for instance or check this list from Environment Victoria).
Sadly, he has instead overseen the demolition of the Victorian Climate Change Act. Development of renewable energy has basically stopped on his watch, which can only give benefit to the fossil fuel industry.
Meanwhile, he has pursued this project, widely described as being more about politics than land management.
Will he be remembered as the minister who turned his back on climate action and habitat protection, whose one legacy was to put cattle back into a national park?
It’s getting on to four years that the Victorian government has been pursuing its attempt to re-introduce cattle into the Victorian alpine national park. You would think that for an issue they are so committed to they would actually be able to produce a comprehensive and scientifically robust plan.
This has not been the case. The following article from the ABC is just the latest criticism of the trial from a scientific perspective. Journalist is Jeremy Story Carter.
A senior scientist says the proposal for the Victorian National Alpine Park cattle grazing trial would receive a fail mark if it was the work of a student.
Professor Mark Burgman, chair of the School of the Botany at the University of Melbourne, reviewed the proposal as part of a submission to the Victorian Government by the Australian Academy of Science.
“If this was a Masters’ project, we’d boot it back to the student,” said Professor Burgman.
“If it was submission to the Australian Research Council, it wouldn’t get to first base, it would get bounced.”
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt last week approved the trial, which will allow 60 cattle to be released into the Wonnangatta Valley this year, with more permitted over the coming two years, subject to review.
Professor Burgman believes the trial should not be permitted in its current form, as it fails to incorporate years of exhaustive research into the impacts of grazing on alpine regions.
“The science I see in front of me is lacking, and it is an admission that should be redressed before anyone starts to think about doing a trial of any kind,” he said.
“There is a wealth of information that could be used to help design the study, but they didn’t make any use of it. That 50-60 years of research ought to have been used to design the study.
“From a scientific perspective, it doesn’t make any sense to do that.”
He says the trial is too narrow in scope, and there is a potential for its findings to be used in other, broader contexts.
“It is very limited in space and its time – three years, one location,” said Professor Burgman.
“If one were to do this in isolation, it would be very easy to generate a set of results that are misleading, that you are then tempted to extrapolate to other places, other situations, that simply won’t function in the same way or react in the same way.”
Professor Burgman is concerned results from the trial could lead to mismanagement of future grazing regions.
“If you treat this trial in isolation, you will end up with some pretty significant surprises and start to manage the place in ways that will lead to outcomes you would have rather avoided.”
The following update and call out comes from the Victorian National Parks Association.
There was also an interesting report on Bush Telegraph on ABC, with the following quote:
In a report titled Does Alpine grazing reduce blazing? A landscape test of a widely-held hypothesis. Dr Williams found ‘the use of domestic stock to mitigate fire extent and severity at landscape scale under conditions of extreme fire weather, is not justified on the basis of the current scientific understanding of fire behaviour, livestock behaviour and alpine vegetation dynamics.’
Dr Williams says there is no justification for the current trial.
‘It has no scientific justification and the trial as it is set out has very little scientific credibility… it will be a neat demonstration that cows eat grass.
In a sad but not unexpected move, the federal environment minister Greg Hunt has approved the Victorian government’s grazing trial in the Wonnangatta Valley within the Victorian national park.
Check here for some background.
This report comes from Tom Arup at The Age.
Greg Hunt approves Victorian Alpine National Park cattle grazing trial
Cattle grazing will return to Victoria’s Alpine National Park after federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved a state government trial to have 60 to 300 cows in the park.
Mr Hunt’s approval stands in contrast to the Gillard Government which blocked a similar – albeit larger – cattle grazing trial, on the grounds it would damage the environment and the heritage values of the alpine region.
The Napthine government has pursued the trial saying it is necessary to test whether grazing reduces the risk of bushfires by removing fuel loads. Conservationists say there is little scientific rigour behind the program and past research shows cattle grazing has no impact on stopping bushfires, while damaging sensitive alpine ecology.
Under the trial, 60 cows will be released into the Wonnangatta Valley in the park for the first year of the program. In the second and third years of the trial, up to 300 cows could be introduced, though Mr Hunt would need to approve the expansion and extra years first.
Advertisement
The approval of the second and third years of the trial by Mr Hunt will be contingent on additional surveys of rare and endangered species in the area and the impacts on heritage.
Mr Hunt has also put limits on the numbers of dogs and horses allowed to be used during the trial. Temporary electric fencing will also be installed along some of the 262-hectare trial site boundary.
Cattle grazing was first removed from the Alpine National Park in 2005 by the Bracks government. Grazing is backed by the Mountain Cattlemen’s Association of Victoria, which says it is part of its long-standing cultural heritage and has campaigned for the practice to return to the national park.
Upon coming to power in Victoria in 2010, the Coalition moved to reinstall grazing in the park, proposing a five-year trial of 400 cattle across several sites to test its impact on bushfire risk.
The government then released cows in the national park in 2011 but was ordered to remove them by the Gillard Government because they had not sought approval under federal environment laws.
That sparked a bitter battle between Canberra and Spring Street over the trial. Former federal Environment Minister Tony Burke changed heritage protections for the alpine region to block cattle grazing, likening the proposal to Japanese “scientific” whaling.
The state government launched a legal challenge, which failed. When the Abbott government came to power last year it then resubmitted a slimmed down version of the trial.
Mr Hunt’s approval was made late on Wednesday night, and he says it followed a “rigorous assessment”.
The following opinion piece was published in the Weekly Times newspaper, March 5, 2014, and was written by Phil Ingamells, from the Victorian National Parks Association.
The project to put cattle back into the Alpine National Park has put Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt in something of a pickle.
Should he leave decisions on land management to the states, as many in his Government will be pressing him to do, or should he act on his clear responsibility to protect the National Heritage-listed Alpine National Park?
The Victorian Government hasn’t made it easy for him to surrender his authority. Its submissions have been careless, rushed and lacking in expertise.
Having made a pre-election promise to the mountain cattlemen that they’d get back into the park, the Victorian Government framed the exercise as a scientific trial to “prove” that alpine grazing would reduce fire.
But in December 2010 they hurried cattle into the park before they had even thought about out how to run a trial. Tony Burke, then federal Environment Minster, saw through the exercise and called a halt. This second attempt isn’t much better.
If you really want to know how grazing affects bushfires, you have to look at the behaviour of real fires, and two clever studies have done that.
One carefully measured the severity of fire across grazed and ungrazed areas of the Bogong High Plains after the 2003 fire. Another used satellite imaging right across the high country for both the 2003 and 2006 fires.
Both studies found that grazing didn’t significantly reduce fire extent or severity, and there was evidence grazing could alter vegetation over time to actually increase risk.
But the Victorian Government seems to be pretending these published didn’t happen.
Instead, the new “trial” will, inexplicably, put 300 cattle into the remote Wonnangatta Valley, letting them munch away on half the known population of a nationally threatened orchid.
Scientists and experienced land managers agree it will tell us nothing useful about fire behaviour. The Victorian Government is either showing incompetence, or taking the federal minster for granted, or both.
The following comes from the Victorian National Parks Association.
In an exercise likely to cost the Victorian taxpayer more than half a million dollars, the Napthine Government is pushing to let cattle into the Alpine National Park’s beautiful Wonnangatta Valley next month.
They claim it is a trial to see how effective cattle grazing will be at reducing bushfires, but the so-called research trial is not actually part of the Victorian Government’s bushfire research program. It is in fact funded separately in an effort to honour a promise made by the Victorian Coalition to return cattle to the park.
What we need from you
The Federal Government has declared it will assess and approve or reject the proposed trial under national environmental laws.
The Wonnangatta Valley, part of the Alpine National Park, is protected under these laws as “national heritage” and is home to a number of nationally threatened species including rare orchids.
You have until 5pm next week (February 25) to say why the trial should not go ahead.
Please send a submission to the Victorian Government’s Department of Environment and Primary Industries, telling them why the trial will hurt the National Heritage listed Alpine National Park. Your comments will also be sent to the Australian Government.
Tell them:
Please also add your own words about why you believe this trial should not go ahead.
Submissions MUST be sent by 5pm, Tuesday 25 February.
Send to:
Wonnangatta Valley Research Trial
Department of Environment and Primary Industries
PO Box 500
East Melbourne VIC 3002
wv.trial@depi.vic.gov.au
Please check the VNPA facebook page for further details on how to make a submission.
Mountain Journal 
Recent Comments