Friends of the Earth (FoE) and Protect our Winters (POW) recently collaborated on a series of events in north east Victoria as both groups aim to ramp up their efforts in that part of the state in coming months.

On Sunday November 16, FoE led walks on the Buffalo plateau to visit areas of older alpine ash and snow gums that were spared the impacts of intense wild fires in recent decades. While the plateau used to be a stronghold of old forests, several blazes in the early 2000s devastated most of the area, resulting in loss of most of the old forests.

It is terrible to see the damage. It is good to be reminded that these forests will be able to recover provided we can keep fire out while the flammable regrowth becomes more resistant to fire over time. This will take decades.

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.

It will happen over the weekend of March 14 and 15.

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 Victorian Labor announced today that it will act on advice from two key consultation processes that were launched to determine the future of Victoria’s native forests on public land, after the cessation of the native forest logging industry in 2024. The Great Outdoors Taskforce (GOT) and the Eminent Panel for Community Engagement (EPCE) have produced long-awaited reports detailing their recommendations.

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.

Winning a significant campaign can take years of work. We are really pleased to be able to tell you about some great developments on snow gums that we have recently helped achieve.

You may know that 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.

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.

Victorians love their public lands. We visit national parks, state forests, beaches and rivers in the millions each year.

Regardless of whether we camp or walk the dog, ride a mountain bike or trail bike, 4WD or ski, we can see that our public lands are being loved to death.

DEECA needs additional funds to have the staff and resources to ensure our public lands are properly managed. DEECA has faced cutbacks, and firefighters are still struggling for better wages and conditions.

Good things happen when people can find common cause for a greater good. Regardless of your views on how our public lands should be managed, we hope you agree: they need more funds.

Please sign this open letter to the Victoria government.

The backcountry film festival is a pre winter institution in Melbourne. We have been screening the festival each year since 2011. The program is put together by Winter Wildlands Alliance, and celebrates the power and spirit of humans in winter.

This is a first announcement for the 2025 screening and a call for local backcountry films to be included in the festival.

The festival features 13 films over 2 and a half hours.

The festival will happen on the afternoon of Sunday May 11, 2025.

While the flooding from ex Tropical Cyclone Alfred continues to impact northern NSW and southern Queensland and a long clean up gets underway, fire season drags on in much of the rest of the continent.

The AFAC Seasonal Bushfire Outlook for Autumn 2025 identifies a ‘heightened risk of fire for parts of WA, SA and Victoria’.

In WA, increased risk of fire is identified for ‘areas between Perth and Carnarvon, and stretching eastwards across much of the Australian mainland’s southern coastline through SA and reaching all the way to southwest Gippsland in Victoria’.

Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) is currently in the process of burning significant areas of Gippsland (and elsewhere in the state) as part of it’s planned burn program.

Planned burning is intended to reduce fire risk, however the introduction of fire then triggers rapid regrowth of plants and burnt areas become as flammable again within a couple of years. Check this info sheet from the Victorian Forests Alliance which outlines why planned burns are not particularly helpful for mitigating bushfires.

Many of the burns planned for Gippsland has deeply concerned locals because of the ecological impacts of the burn. One in particular is galvanising the community and there is now a campaign to have the burn halted. This is at Mississippi Creek.

In central Victoria, traditional owners the Dja Dja Wurrung (also known as DJAARA - their representative body) are reasserting their right to manage Country. As part of this process, they are rolling out their interconnected land management programs of Djandak Wi (Country Fire) and Galk-galk Dhelkunya (Forest Gardening).

Parts of the Wombat Forest exist on Djaara land. Storm clearing activities in the Wombat in 2022 caused considerable alarm within the forest activist community because of a connection with the (thankfully now defunct) state logging agency VicForests.

The scale of the works caused great concern but also resulted in significant misunderstanding about the nature of Forest Gardening. In response to the controversy DJAARA have stated that: 

'The removal of wind thrown timber was not Forest Gardening. To date, the only contemporary Forest Gardening application has been at one small trial site.'

‘Forest Gardening is not logging. It is healing Djandak (Dja Dja Wurrung Country) and includes cultural thinning, revegetation and cultural burning. Our knowledge represents over 65,000 years of land management experience’.

In an attempt to help forest activists to better understand Dja Dja Wurrung aspirations for Country, FoE has been helping to organise regular ‘walks on Country’ with representatives from DJAARA.