The second snow gum summit will happen on Ngarigo Country in Jindabyne over the weekend of March 14 and 15.

There will also be guided walks and a tree planting afternoon on monday March 16.

We are delighted to announce the line-up of speakers.

Once the forum starts we will aim to keep the program updated if there are any additions of speakers or apologies.

We have struggled to get any external backing to host this conference and are about $3,000 in the red to host it. If you were in a position to support us with a tax deductible donation, that will go directly to hosting a successful event. You can make a donation here.

You can get tickets to the summit here.

We hope to see you in Jindabyne.

Please scroll down for details on the walks which are scheduled for monday March 16 and bios of the presenters.

The summit program

Dr Matthew Brookhouse completed a BSc (Forestry) Honours at ANU in 1997 and returned to the ANU in 2003 after six years designing and implementing growth and yield studies, and forest inventory protocols in Victoria's native forests. After receiving his PhD (2008) and two postdoctoral research projects focussed on the use of forest structural complexity for landscape planning and dendrochronological reconstruction of river flow in Victoria, Dr Brookhouse commenced a dual appointment between the Research School of Biology (Farquhar Lab) and Fenner School and conducted research aimed at understanding water use in regenerating mountain ash forests and [CO2] responsiveness in commercial forest species. He is now a Senior Lecturer in the Fenner School and teaches environmental research methods with a focus on helping students connect theoretical inferential statistics with their application. Dr Brookhouse is a principal investigator in the collaborative research efforts focused on understanding wood-borer induced dieback of snow-gum woodland in the Australian Alps.

Dr Phillip Zylstra 

Building on a lifetime of love for the mountains and years of fire management and remote area firefighting in the Snowies, Dr. Phil Zylstra uses complex analyses of fire histories and cutting-edge modelling techniques to answer core questions about fire and its place in the mountains.

Ruby Olsson is a social science PhD candidate at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, examining how managers and researchers are grappling with climate-change driven ecological transformation. Her research workshops and interviews across two comparative case studies; whitebark pine dieback in northwest United States and snow gum dieback in the Australian Alps, as part of the ANU Save Our Snow Gums Linkage Project. Ruby is particularly interested in the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework as a tool to assist managers and researchers respond to ecological transformation, and which is currently being used in both the US and Australian context. Ruby is also the lead author of the Protect Our Winter's "Our Changing Snowscapes" report (2024) on the impacts of climate change in the Australian Alps.

Link to Fenner School of Environment page: https://fennerschool.anu.edu.au/people/ruby-olsson

Whitebark Pine is an iconic "keystone" species in the subalpine regions of the northwest United States, and the only tree species listed under the US Endangered Species Act. Managers and researchers are grappling with threats of blister rust, mountain pine beetle, changing bushfire regimes, and shifting range suitability due to climate change, with insights for the Australian snow gum context. 

Brent Bourke

Thredbo Environmental Coordinator – Operations

Brent has been Environmental Coordinator at Thredbo Resort for the past 7 years.

With over 25 years’ experience in production and conservation land management, Brent has worked extensively in these sectors assisting land managers to better manage soils, vegetation, and inputs for sustainable land use.  He holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and has experience in livestock and pasture management, crop production, agronomy, agricultural research and precision agriculture.

Brent formerly worked with the NSW NPWS as a field and senior field officer in the KNP, working on the summit walking track and many of the former Snowy sites’ rehabilitation programs.

At Thredbo, Brent is responsible for managing pest and weed control programs, MTB park environmental monitoring, offset monitoring, rehabilitation programs, APZ management, GiS mapping, environmental officer for developments and assisting with winter operations in the Environmental Services Department.

Euan Diver

Thredbo Environmental Services Manager

Euan is a geological engineer by training with extensive experience in the management and operation of infrastructure in an Alpine environment and a passion for operating and developing in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Euan has lived and worked in Thredbo for over 30 years and while still working in Thredbo, now resides in Jindabyne.  He currently manages the Thredbo environmental services department who are responsible for the operation of the resort infrastructure and the environmental stewardship of the resort’s operations. 

Starting his professional career as a geotechnical engineer working in Victoria, Euan moved to Thredbo as an assistant engineer.  He is currently responsible for the implementation and management of Thredbo’s environmental management system and the ongoing geotechnical management of the resort area and also has carriage of the conservation and land management aspects of the Thredbo operation, overseeing many of the development projects in Thredbo including the installation and upgrade of municipal infrastructure throughout the resort.  Euan was also a member of the NPWS Southern Ranges Regional Advisory Committee for 18 years from 2004.

Mel Schroder  

Team Leader Conservation – Southern Ranges, NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service.

Mel Schroder has worked in natural area management for 30 years.  Her focus for the past two decades has been on monitoring and management to protect conservation values including a range of threatened species in Kosciusko National Park.

Rosie Wositzky-Jones & Lee Blackman
Rosie and Lee are teachers with the Dinner Plain Campus of Bright Prep-12 School, with 5 seasons of Winter education in DP between them. Both teaching for around a decade, with Rosie specialising in the arts and Lee in environmental education, the pair led a whole-school Snow Gum project in response to last year's summit.

47 young citizen scientists aged 5–12 undertook an intensive learning project, exploring the threats to Snow Gums and deepening their passion for the magnificent trees surrounding their school. As part of the project, students created a journal to educate others about Snow Gums and the challenges they face, which was distributed throughout the local community. We will share examples of their art, poetry and stories, along with their hopes for the future and practical tips for engaging schools in research and advocacy projects.

Anthony Sharwood is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and the author of three recent books on the Australian high country: From Snow to Ash, The Brumby Wars and Kosciuszko: The Incredible Life of the Man Behind the Mountain.

Jane Ormonde is an experienced counsellor, writer, nature connection practitioner and spiritual companion-guide. From Victoria’s high plains, riverside suburbs and the arid red centre, she found solace and meaning building a new kind of relationship with the land, its beings and its peoples. Jane has a Masters in Spirituality and her particular interest relates to spirituality of the land and pathways towards a sense of connectedness. Key influences include Miriam Rose Ungunmerr, Joanna Macy, John O’Donohue, Mary Oliver, Margaret Kemarre Turner, Matt Licata and Richard Rohr.

Indi Williams is an Honours student in the Plant Ecology Lab at La Trobe University. Her research this year uses dendrochronology to investigate timing and drivers of snow gum dieback in the Victorian Alps, with a focus on reconstructing tree mortality and disturbance history. Indi first developed a strong connection to alpine environments while working in outdoor education, leading multi-day journeys for teenagers through these landscapes. This experience continues to shape her interest in understanding and protecting alpine ecosystems.  

Lara Troy-O'Leary is a Ngarigo woman living in Canberra, currently completing her honours in environment and sustainability at the ANU Fenner School. The current subject of her studies is creating a size-age model for Eucalyptus lacrimans ('weeping snow gum'), a rare, understudied species of Eucalypt under threat from snow gum dieback. Her study is done with the cultural support of her Mob and as part of the Save Our Snow Gums project, led by her supervisor Dr Matt Brookhouse.

Professor Jakelin Troy is an Ngarigu linguist and sociologist, and is Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research at the University of Sydney. Her research is focussed on documenting, describing and reviving Indigenous languages, and in the use of Indigenous research methodologies and community engaged research practises. 

Michael Hansby is a Cultural Forest Research & Management Senior Advisor at Taungurung Land & Waters Council. Their work history includes contributions to projects focused on the economic, social, and cultural well-being of the Taungurung people. Prior to this, Michael served as a Bushfire Analysis & Research Senior Analyst at Terramatrix, contributing to bushfire risk management and land use planning.

Dr Steve Leonard is an ecologist with over 30 years’ experience in conservation management and applied research. His work includes fire ecology research in grassland, forest and mallee ecosystems. He currently leads the NRE Tas TWWHA Fire Science Monitoring and Research program. This program delivers information and decision support tools to enhance natural values outcomes of fire management in Tasmania.

Bethany Dunne is a fire ecologist working with the Office of Nature Conservation in the Environment Directorate of ACT Government. She works closely with land managers and fire practitioners to provide ecological advice into fire management activities across the ACT; undertakes research and monitoring projects into prescribed fire application and bushfire impacts within the ACT; and also provides ecological input into longer-term strategic fire planning for the Territory. She is an experienced firefighter and undertakes duties as planning officer in Incident Management Teams.  

Dr Pele Cannon is a Human Ecologist and researcher working at the intersection of conservation, agriculture, natural resource management, and human systems. Her recent research has focused on the relational context of human-nonhuman coexistence and environmental governance. Pele completed a BA at ANU, with an Honours project in Human Ecology, and a PhD thesis titled Don't Scare The Wolves: Towards response-able human-nonhuman coexistence. She is currently assisting A/Prof Sarah Clement on her DECRA-funded project Fire and Transformation: Building capacity for managing Australian Bushfires, and convening the Fenner School's Honours and Masters (Adv) Research Skills coursework.

Dr Sarah Clement is an Associate Professor in Environmental Policy at ANU’s Fenner School. Her research focuses on environmental governance and policy, and how knowledge from multiple disciplines and stakeholders can inform more effective policy and management interventions. 

Justin Borevitz obtained his PhD in 2002 from the University of California at San Diego studying Natural Variation in Arabidopsis light response. In 2012 he moved to the Australian National University and became a full Professor in 2014. His research focuses on Genome Wide Association Studies of growth and developmental traits under simulated climates in plant models Arabidopsis and Brachypodium. The goal is to identify the genetic basis of climate adaptation to predict and select adaptive genotypes for changing and challenging growing conditions.

Dr Leah Moore is a critical zone geoscientist with expertise in land and water management. She has collaborated with federal and state agencies, and NSW National Parks, contributing to strategic catchment management. She is presently commissioning the rainwater, surface water and groundwater monitoring array for the Save Our Snow Gums program and coordinating the team analysing alpine soils at the SOSG field sites.

Margaret Mackinnon

Margaret Mackinnon is a research scientist of 35 years’ standing who turned her hand to leading Upper Snowy Landcare Network’s post-dieback restoration efforts on the Monaro tableland from 2017 to 2023.  She currently works with Justin Borevitz’s team at ANU helping to dissect genomes of Eucalyptus for climate-adaptive genes.  She is passionate about improving  management of our rural land.

Greening Australia

Greening Australia has recently undertaken a planting to install a climate adjusted provenance plot for E.pauciflora at our property in the Adaminaby area. We aim to use the plot to understand the performance of seed from 9 different climate analogue areas and overtime the plot will become a genetically diverse population helping to build resilience to a changing climate. We think the summit would be a great opportunity to share the work we are doing and learn from others. This work was being led by Dr Melinda Pickup, Dr Edward Tsen, Nicki Taws with involvement from myself and the Wolgalu Traditional Owner team to implement.