Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00045:body:0:p15
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00045
Segment Type: other
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Character Range: 41313–44198

associated with the impacts of grazing and exotic weed invasion, both of which are addressed elsewhere in this section.

Although the ecological community has evolved with fire, fire is not a process that supports the ecosystem function of the Alpine Sphagnum Bogs and Associated Fens (e.g. the vegetation does not require fire for germination processes). Therefore, a fire regime with long intervals between disturbances is unlikely to result in the long-term decline in the condition of the ecological community. The greatest threat from fire is where there are repeated disturbances without adequate time for recovery in vegetation cover and diversity (McDougall, 2007; Whinam et al., 2010). A high intensity fire is also more likely to reduce vegetation cover and damage underlying peat layers. A reduction in vegetation cover within and adjoining alpine bogs and fens may result in changes in hydrological regimes and increase the risk of invasion by exotic species. Equally, threats that impact on hydrology can exacerbate the impacts from fire.

Over 1.4 million hectares of alpine and subalpine country in north-east Victoria, south-east NSW and the ACT were severely burnt by the bushfires of January 2003. Large areas covered by the ecological community were affected (Gill et al., 2004; Hope et al., 2005). The impacts of the 2003 bushfires were variable, depending on the particular location, vegetation type, fire intensity and prevailing weather conditions that occurred at the time. The result was a mosaic of variously-sized areas (square metres to hundreds of hectares) of severely burnt and unburnt vegetation (Crabb, 2003).

The potential for increased frequency of high intensity fires developing each year as climate change evolves is significant, and is already resulting in landscape-wide vegetation and soil change in alpine areas. This suggests that even one highly intense fire in the future may have catastrophic outcomes for the structure, diversity and loss of vegetation in the ecological community over large areas.

4.4 Domestic stock

One of the well documented threats to alpine vegetation is the impact of animals introduced to Australia since European settlement. All alpine and subalpine regions on the mainland and in Tasmania were used for summer grazing of domestic cattle from the early 1800s. Grazing in national parks in Tasmania, NSW and the ACT ceased by the 1970s and 1980s (considerably earlier in some areas, such as 1914 in the Cotter Catchment, ACT) and formally came to an end in Victoria in 2005 (Kirkpatrick, 1983; Ashton and Williams, 1989; Crabb, 2003; Jacobs, 2005), with exception of grazing trials for fuel load reduction in the Wonnangatta Valley. Where cattle have restricted access to the national parks, it is critical that key management options such as fencing, conditional licenses and enforcement are strengthened , as