COWS IN THE ALPINE NATIONAL PARK

Briefing paper, August 2003

Background

Summer grazing of sheep and cattle in sub-alpine and alpine regions of Victoria has been happening since the 1850s, and even earlier in NSW.

The effects of grazing in alpine areas of NSW and Victoria has been the subject of many investigations since the mid 1940s. Grazing was removed from Kosciuszko National Park in the 1950s. In Victoria, grazing was removed from Mount Buffalo NP in 1952, from areas around Mounts Feathertop, Hotham and Bogong in 1956, from areas around Mount Howitt in the 1980s and from the northern Bogong High Plains, the Bluff and part of Davies Plains in 1991.

Current situation

Grazing licences still cover some 314,000 hectares of Victoria's Alpine National Park, and much of that is in alpine and sub-alpine areas. Though figures for the previous year are not available, around 6,000-7,000 head of cattle are involved. It is likely that around 3,000 cattle were brought to the Bogong High Plains alone.

Current seven-year cattle grazing licences for Victoria's Alpine National Park expire in August 2005, but notification of non-renewal probably should be given by August 2004, according to current legislation.

Reasons to end cattle grazing throughout Victoria's Alpine National Park

In general, grazing in the Alpine National Park:

• is an exploitative activity inappropriate for a national park;
• is a 19' century farming practice, bearing little relationship to current farming practices aimed at improving the land;
• compromises the tourist potential of the high plains through a great reduction in the extent of flowering plants;
• is inconsistent with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the ACT, NSW, Vic. and Fed. Gov'ts, particularly in regard to `complementary policies and management practices throughout the Australian Alps national parks';
• compromises the formation of a three state `Australian Alps National Park';
• compromises the possibility of World Heritage nomination for the Australian Alps and associated slopes to the SE coast.
• is inconsistent with the objectives of Victoria's `Native Vegetation Management Framework'
• Costs the public far more to manage than is returned in licence fees.

In particular, cattle grazing in the Alpine National Park:

• causes extensive damage to alpine and sub-alpine peat bogs, through the trampling of sphagnum and peat, subsequent lowering of the water table and eventual drying out of these wetland areas (bogs occupy around 1,300 ha of the Bogong High Plains alone);
• significantly affects the water regime in the alps, through the aforementioned processes;
• is a threat to soil conservation in the alps, with extensive soil loss on the high plains and subsequent siltation of streams.
• has been shown to affect the distribution of both terrestrial and underwater invertebrates;
  • pollutes mountain streams, making them unsafe sources of drinking water for walkers and other park visitors;
• affects, through the above processes, many of Victoria's major rivers (the Murray, the Snowy, the Kiewa, the Mitta Mitta, the Ovens, the Macalister and the Mitchell have all or some of their headwaters in grazing licence areas);
• changes the species composition of grasslands, with greatly reduced occurrence of tall, showy herbs (eg Snow Daisies);
• severely degrades large areas of heathland and grassland, particularly by significantly increasing the abundance of bare ground, and often increasing the abundance of flammable shrubs;
• has caused the spread of weeds (eg Broom, Bent Grass) particularly through the increases in areas of bare ground;
• increasingly leaves the high plains vulnerable to invasion by new highly invasive weed species, such as Orange Hawk Weed;

Since gazing was incorporated into legislation as an allowable activity in the Alpine NP Act, it has regularly appeared as a significant threat to endangered species and communities under Victoria's Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. In particular:

• • soil erosion and vegetation damage caused by grazing is listed as a Potentially Threatening Process in alpine areas of Victoria (Nomination no. 211)
• gazing is clearly implicated in the listing and action statement of another FFG Threatening Process: the increase in sediment input to rivers and streams due to human activities.
• several alpine and sub-alpine species and communities affected by cattle grazing are separately listed as threatened under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, notably the:
  • Alpine Water Skink ( Nom. 222; Action Statement 114);
  • Alpine Stonefly (Nom. 81);
  • Alpine Bog Skink (Nom. 390);
  • Alpine She-oak Skink (Nom. 393; Action Statement 113);
  • Mountain Daisy (Nom. 169);
  • Silky Daisy (Nom. 220);
  • Drapetes (Nom. 179);
  • Dwarf Sedge (Nom. 176);
  • Rock Tussock Grass (Nom. 177);
  • Caltha introloba Herbland Community (Nom. 202);
  • Alpine Snowpatch Community (Nom. 192);
  • Alpine Bog Community (Nom.159);
  • Fen (Bog Pool) Community (Nom. 182).

PHILIP INGAMELLS
ALPINE CAMPAIGNER
VICTORIAN NATIONAL PARKS ASSOCIATION