Managing cattle grazing in the Victorian alps following the Alpine fires 2002-2003
Of the more than one million hectares of public land in the Victorian Alps burnt in the 2002/03 fires, almost half of that land is licensed for cattle grazing. There are 176 licences on both National Park and State Forest land affected by the fires.
Managing post-fire grazing, which has the potential to impact on fire affected areas as they recover, is part of an overall fire-recovery strategy.
The fires had a significant impact on the alpine and mountain forest environments, exposing them to risk of erosion, reduced water quality and weed invasion. Sensitive areas like alpine bogs are now particularly susceptible to damage.
Much of this environment needs time to recover without disturbance. Recovery periods vary in different environments, with the longest recovery periods in the slow growing alpine and sub alpine areas, which have very short growing seasons.
The decision of whether or not to permit cattle grazing in Victoria’s fire-affected alpine areas in the coming Summer will be based on several factors:
- The need to allow areas to recover,
- The advice of an independent scientific panel (see document below),
- Environmental values of the fire affected areas,
- Experience of managing cattle after previous fires (ie: Caledonia 1998),
- Consultation with licensees, including a meeting at Dinner Plain, Oct 29
- Professor Nancy Millis (Chair); Emeritus Professor, School of Microbiology, University of Melbourne. Chancellor, LaTrobe University
- Dr Graham Harris: CSIRO Fellow, CSIRO Corporate, Canberra. Former Chair CSIRO Flagship Programs. Former Chief, CSIRO Land & Water
- Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick, School of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania
- Professor David Kemp: Director, Centre for Rural Sustainability, University of Sydney, Orange
- Dr Dick Williams: CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Northern Territory
A final decision in relation to which licensees will and will not be permitted to graze cattle in Victoria’s fire-affected alpine areas will be made in December.
View the findings of the Scientific Advisory Panel:
Scientific Advisory Panel Report on Fire Affected Grazing - 2003 (PDF - 745 Kb)Page Top