The second snow gum summit will happen on Ngarigo Country in Jindabyne over the weekend of March 14 and 15 next year.
The first summit happened at Dinner Plain earlier this year, attracting about 100 people, who heard from wonderful speakers.
Tickets for the 2026 gathering have just gone on sale. Like the 2025 event, this is expected to sell out, so grab one today if you’re planning to attend.
Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora) are the classic tree of the Australian High Country. They are profoundly different to the trees found in mountain areas in other parts of the world, and give a uniquely Australian sense to our high country. However, they are facing a double threat: they are at risk from dieback and climate change driven bushfires.
Like most eucalypt species, the snow gum can survive fire. However, climate change is leading to more frequent and intense fire, which is causing more death of trees and changes to forest structure. And while dieback, caused by a native beetle, is a natural occurrence, the dieback is getting worse and more widespread because climate change is making winters warmer and summers drier and hotter.
While most snow gums in Victoria are included in national parks, we are on the verge of losing the landscapes that we spent decades protecting.
Friends of the Earth have been running a campaign to ensure that the Victorian government acts in a meaningful way to head off these threats. Here is an update on recent progress made in the campaign, and new directions in the work.
Back in 2022, I helped host an event at Mt Hotham called Climate change, fire and the Alps. I remember being struck by something that was said by one of the speakers. Craig Hore, who at that point was a Ranger in Charge of Fire and Emergency Operations North East District, at Parks Victoria, reflected on his long connection to the mountains. Fire regimes in the high country have changed in the last quarter century, with more frequent and intense fires.
Craig reflected on the fact that since the fires of 2002/3, the mountains have been transformed. With ever more frequent fire and drier conditions, he doesn’t think that we can go back to what the Alps used to be like. In his early days as a Ranger he could drive through older forests for hours. But now so much of the park has been badly impacted by fires. “I doubt we will ever see those old forests again.”
Snow Gum Summit – Next Ascent: Protecting Alpine Landscapes
Friends of the Earth Melbourne is excited to share that we are organising a second Snow Gum Summit, which will take place in March 2026 on Ngarigo Country in Jindabyne. The Summit will bring people together from across the Australian Alps bioregion spanning Victoria, NSW and the ACT, to address the threats facing these iconic landscapes we all know and love.
Snow gum forests and woodlands are under accelerating stress from climate change, fire, and beetle-driven dieback. The widespread dieback is equivalent to that of a mass bleaching event of the Great Barrier Reef. Without bold interventions, these ecosystems face ecological collapse within our lifetimes.
The summit will happen over the weekend of March 14 and 15.
Globally, Alpine Ecosystems are in trouble. Right now our snow gums, an iconic feature of the Australian alps, are facing a mass mortality event and are at risk of ecological collapse due to dieback and the impact of repeated bush fire.
You can help save our snow gums by planning a hike through the Australian Alps this walking season. While you are walking, record your observations of snow gum dieback and fire impact via our citizen science initiatives.
As you will know, winning a significant campaign can take years of work. I am really pleased to be able to tell you about some great developments on snow gums that we have recently helped achieve.
You may recall that Friends of the Earth (FoE) started working in the Victorian high country in 2021 because there was very limited forest campaign work going on in the north east at the time, and many dire threats of logging in special forests. We released the Icon at Risk report, which made it clear snow gum forests are facing an existential threat from climate change driven fire and expanded impact of dieback. We campaigned for an end to logging in the high country, and developed a rescue plan for snow gum forests.
During the campaign, we have had to deal with three different environment ministers on these issues. Each time we needed to get the new minister and their staff up to speed on the issue, then encourage them to act.
In February this year we hosted the first ever snow gum summit, which allowed us to build the profile of the campaign and give the government more detail about how they need to respond to protect snow gum forests.
And now, after four years of consistent work, we have some great news.
Continue reading “Good news – protection for snow gums gets closer”
As you know snow gum communities across the high country face an existential threat from the combined impacts of dieback and more frequent and intense fire seasons. Sadly the isolated pockets of snow gums away from the higher mountains face similar threats, like in the Mt Cole ranges where the Bayindeen fire damaged sections of remnant snow gum forest.
There is currently a sustained threat to the wonderful snow gum forests on Mt Macedon and I am asking you to take a few moments to contact two MPs and urge them to stop proposed tree felling operations.
This information comes from our friends at the Victorian National Parks Association who are leading the campaign to protect these trees.
Continue reading “Protect Macedon’s rare Snow Gums from chainsaws”
Snow Gums are the classic alpine tree of the Australian High Country. And they’re now at risk.
Snow gums can survive fire. However, climate change driven fire seasons are leading to more frequent fire, which is causing more death of trees and changes to forest structure. Dieback, which is caused by a native beetle, but becoming more damaging due to the effects of climate change, is devastating large sections of the high country. In many places, localised ecological collapse is now occurring.
Continue reading “Heading off ecological collapse in the mountains”
The Mountain Journal magazine is now in its 5th year of production. We print 1,000 copies and distribute it for free through mountain and valley towns between Melbourne and Canberra during autumn each year. This year we had a guest editor – Anna Langford, who has produced an absolutely gorgeous magazine with the assistance of designer Tess Sellar and beautiful images from a range of people including Matt Tomkins.
The theme delves into what is happening to Winter. As Anna says in her introduction: “Long, deep winters are fast becoming folk tales of the past. But there is still so much to love, and so much we can do to act. To talk about our alpine winters is to lament what we’ve lost, celebrate
what we still have, record it for collective memory, and impel each other to step up and take action“.
Continue reading “Mountain Journal magazine #5 now available”
Each year it gets a little harder to ignore the impacts of climate change. For us mountain folk, the obvious signs are the more erratic winters, the dwindling snowpack, and the longer fire seasons that, increasingly, disrupt our summers.
Every natural ecosystem on the planet is being impacted by climate change. In the Australian high country, the two most obvious victims are alpine ash and snow gums. It is impossible to miss the walls of grey dead trunks and the thick and flammable regrowth as you drive up into the mountains from any valley town. Climate change is making our fire seasons longer and snow gums are increasingly being burnt beyond their ability to recover. Research from Latrobe University[1] shows that ‘long unburnt’ snow gums are now ‘exceedingly rare’ in the Victorian Alps, comprising less than 1% of snow gum forests.
And dieback is now killing thousands of trees. Dieback is a natural phenomena, caused by a native beetle. However, climate change appears to be ‘super charging’ the scale of the impact. This is because winters are shorter and warmer (meaning more beetles survive the cold months) and summers are hotter and drier (meaning trees are more water stressed and less able to produce the sap that acts as a defence against beetle infestations).
Sarah Lynch is an artist based in Naarm (Melbourne) and works primarily in photography, video, and installation. Lynch’s most recent work examines the diversity of the botanical world and the relationship between plants, people, and the ecosystems they inhabit.
Sarah will be presenting at the snow gum summit, which will happen at Dinner Plain from February 14 – 16, 2025.
Announcement of conference: February 14 – 16, 2025
Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora) are the classic tree of the Australian High Country. They are profoundly different to the trees found in mountain areas in other parts of the world, and give a uniquely Australian sense to our high country. However, they are facing a double threat to their survival: from fire and dieback.
We are hosting a ‘snow gum summit’ which will bring together land managers and academics and anyone interested in the future of this iconic species to explore what needs to be done to ensure the survival of snow gum woodlands, and put the issue firmly on the state governments agenda.
We will be inviting First Nations people, local and state wide environmental organisations, local communities and businesses, groups active in outdoors recreation, and enthusiasts of high-elevation, forest ecosystems. There will be presentations, workshops and field trips.
This event will happen at Dinner Plain, on GunaiKurnai Country in north eastern Victoria.
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