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EDITED BY MAYA DARBY

Victoria’s Alpine National Park only partially protects the forests of the state’s High Country. Ceasing native-forest logging in the areas around the park needs to begin now.

Many Wild readers were part of the long and ultimately successful campaign in the 1970s and 80s that saw much of the Victorian high country protected in the Alpine National Park. What younger readers may not know, however, is that many important forests were excluded from the park. In effect, it has an ‘economic’ boundary—that is, the valuable timber-bearing forests of alpine ash were largely excluded from the park, while the commercially useless snow gums and higher alpine zones were included. Some areas of the proposed park were even subjected to ‘once only’ logging before being included.

The Alpine NP sits within a wild landscape that’s predominantly public land still open to logging. While there’s a state government commitment to end native-forest logging in Victoria by 2030, the damage done across the Alps by the Black Summer fires has made it clear that this deadline is far too late.

Sadly, key areas of ecological value are now at risk of logging. Friends of the Earth (FoE) is campaigning to have particular forests—selected on the basis of their ecological values and proximity to the park— protected from logging.

These include Mt Stirling, a popular spot for XC skiing, walking, mountain bike riding and trail running. It has up to eleven areas of forest scheduled to be logged. Logging will have dramatic impacts on recreation, as well as fragmenting the high-elevation forests that circle the summit area.

The Little Dargo, just south of Mt Hotham, is a special, unroaded headwater area that contains old forests of mountain gum and recovering alpine ash. Unlike much of the surrounding area, it has only been lightly burnt in recent decades. Logging is likely to yield mostly low-value products like pulp.

Mt Wills is an ‘island in the sky’—a small plateau which supports old-growth snow gum woodlands. It is connected by Long Spur to Victoria’s highest mountain—Bogong (Warkwoolowler). There are impressive, older alpine ash forests on Long Spur, below the Mt Wills summit, which are scheduled for logging. Dense, flammable regrowth from logging operations would pose a direct risk of intense fire to the uphill old forests of Mt Wills.

You can find out more about these areas by heading here: melbournefoe.org.au/foe_s_work_in_the_ vic_high_country And to learn about the many threats to the Victorian high country, you can read FoE’s Icon at Risk report here: melbournefoe.org. au/an_icon_at_risk .

CAM WALKER, Friends of the Earth (Melbourne)

LEARN MORE:

The Icon at Risk report outlines the many threats to the Victorian high country, which include:

- Climate change, including out-ofcontrol wild fires, dieback of snowgums and loss of alpine ash, plus loss of snow pack

- Invasive species , including deer and horses

- Logging

- Commercial development

FoE also runs regular ‘citizen science’ field trips to the high country to map both loss and resilience.

More details here: melbournefoe.org. au/snow_gums_ and_citizen_science