One of the reasons for ending licensed alpine grazing was
the damage cattle were causing to the hundreds of mossy peat beds scattered throughout the high country
.
These remarkable natural systems for distributing water through the seasons have, since grazing stopped, been helped towards recovery by alpine ecologists and thousands of hours of volunteer labour.
Some 60 years of impeccable science helped demonstrate why alpine grazing should end, and it was a courageous, evidence-based decision by the Bracks government to stop the practice in 2005.
A comprehensive study after the 2003 fire showed that cattle grazing didn’t have any significant impact on either the extent or severity of fire. It seems that
shrubs are the main agent for carrying fire in the alps, and cattle don’t eat them.
Even the exhaustive
Bushfires Royal Commission made no recommendation to reintroduce grazing
. And since grazing ended, all Australian mainland alpine national parks (including Kosciuszko, Namadgi and Mount Buffalo) have been given
national heritage listing.
National heritage listing gives the park added protection under federal law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. And those fragile, ancient, moss-covered peat beds and their associated alpine wetlands have been listed as threatened under that same law.
Any attempt by the Coalition to reintroduce grazing as a management practice would be blocked by the federal government.
Victorians need a promise to seriously invest in the knowledge, expertise and resources required to keep our great natural areas healthy, and free from a growing range of pest plants and animals.
And the Alpine National Park needs
a solid commitment to remove the feral, hard-hooved beasts up there, the thousands of horses, pigs and deer
trampling and munching their way through areas the cattle didn’t always get to, such as the rainforests and wetlands down-slope.