A snow gum in the Australian High Country, where scientists are tracking the combined impacts of fire, rising temperatures and beetle-induced dieback. Photo: Friends of the Earth.
Twisted, mottled and streaked with cream, grey, green and pink, snow gums give the Snowy Mountains much of their character.
But their importance goes well beyond the landscape they create.
The trees help capture and gradually release water into the river systems below, with more than a quarter of the Murray River’s flow thought to originate in the alpine catchments that make up only about one per cent of its total catchment.
They also provide habitat in an environment where few other trees can survive.
Now, with only a small portion of the Snowy Mountains’ snow gum forest remaining intact after two decades of bushfire and the spread of beetle-induced dieback, people visiting the region are being asked to help build a clearer picture of what is happening.
Thredbo will join an Alps-wide citizen science program on Saturday 5 September, with interest also emerging in possible surveys at Perisher and Dead Horse Gap.
Similar surveys are being held throughout August at more than 20 locations across Victoria, NSW and the ACT, including Mt Buller, Falls Creek, the Bogong High Plains, Lake Mountain and Mt Hotham, where the program will be part of the Australian Backcountry Festival on 29 and 30 August.
The concerns behind the citizen science push were brought into sharp focus at the second Snow Gum Summit, held at Jindabyne from 14 to 16 March.
The gathering brought together scientists, land managers, firefighters, First Nations representatives, landcare groups, ski industry representatives and community organisations to examine the mounting pressures on snow gum woodlands.
Among those speaking was Australian National University (ANU) researcher Dr Matthew Brookhouse, who is studying dieback linked to the native longicorn beetle Phoracantha mastersi.
He said only a small portion of alpine snow gum forest remained intact after fires since 2002 and the more recent spread of beetle infestation.
He said infestations had been recorded from Mt Buffalo in Victoria through Kosciuszko and into the Brindabella Range.
The beetle’s larvae feed beneath the bark, damaging the tissues that carry water and nutrients through the tree.
Researchers are still trying to understand how fire, beetle activity and rising temperatures are interacting.
Dr Brookhouse said fire appeared to play a role in beetle outbreaks, possibly triggering them or making infestations more severe, but the relationship was not yet fully understood.
“We’ve much left to do here,” he said. “Really, we’ve only started on examining the relation between fire and beetles.”
One possibility is that fire damages bark or affects a tree’s ability to move water, leaving it more vulnerable to attack, although Dr Brookhouse said that had not yet been established with certainty.
Temperature may also be playing an important role.
“Both phenomena are climate mediated and both our current temperature trend and future projections are sobering,” Dr Brookhouse said.
He said the apparent relationship between beetle activity and temperature meant projected warming could place remaining snow gum stands within conditions increasingly favourable to intense infestations.
Even if a way is found to control the beetle, rising temperatures will continue to put pressure on the trees.
“Given the limited alpine space into which snow-gum could migrate and the need to also protect truly alpine, non-treed ecosystems, the range within which snow gum can persist is, and will be, tightly squeezed,” he said.
Friends of the Earth spokesperson Anna Langford said summit participants heard some snow gum woodlands had been repeatedly burnt over the past 25 years, leaving trees less time to recover between fires.
At the summit, Southern Ranges NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) conservation team leader Mel Schroder said only about 10 per cent of Kosciuszko National Park’s (KNP’s) snow gum community had escaped fire impacts during her time working in the park.
Friends of the Earth said that represented about 14,000 hectares from about 125,000 hectares of snow gum woodland.
Work is already underway through NPWS monitoring and restoration programs and ANU research, but Friends of the Earth argues the scale of the problem requires a coordinated national response.
The organisation used the Jindabyne summit to test support for seeking protection for snow gums under the Federal Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, with Ms Langford saying the proposal was strongly endorsed by participants.
Friends of the Earth plans to lodge a threatened ecological community nomination in March 2027.
It argues federal listing could improve national coordination and access to research and restoration funding, while also providing additional legal protection for affected communities.
“The work being done by ANU, state national parks services and others is all crucial, but it is falling vastly short of what is needed to urgently arrest the rapid decline of snow gums,” Ms Langford said.
Before that application is lodged, organisers want a clearer picture of what is happening across the mountains.
At Thredbo, participants will be taught to distinguish healthy trees from those burnt or recovering from fire and those dead or declining from beetle dieback.
They will tally trees in each category, photograph leaves and gumnuts to help identify subspecies, and record details including location, elevation and weather conditions.
Ms Langford said she was not aware of a recent survey specifically quantifying dieback at Thredbo, while Dr Brookhouse said researchers had refined a powerful mapping technique but did not yet have estimates showing the rate at which dieback was spreading.
“This is the first time that an Alps-wide citizen science assessment of snow gums has been conducted,” Ms Langford said.
“It will provide updated information of areas that under-resourced scientists are not able to comprehensively survey year on year.”
The Thredbo survey will meet at the Gunbarrel chairlift at 9 am on Saturday 5 September and is being organised by Protect Our Winters Jindabyne.
Friends of the Earth says skis or a snowboard and a lift pass will be required for the Thredbo event.
For those taking part, the exercise is simple: look more closely at the trees around them and help document what is happening to one of the defining landscapes of the Australian Alps.
For more information and the full list of events check out the snow gum campaign.
