It was a busy day at Mt Field National Park, with lots of interstate and international tourists out enjoying the 23 degree temperatures. STSA President Peter Davis joined Friends of Mt Field Convenor Peter Franklin, Friends of Mt Field Volunteers and three Parks rangers to roll out and pin down new shadecloth on the lower section of the Mt Mawson Ski run.
This area of the Mawson run was groomed a couple of years ago, and has been successfully sown with alpine grass. However the grazing pressure of numerous wallabies, and the harsh alpine environment means that the regrowth has been slow. The concept of using shadecloth to promote growth by protecting the grass from grazing and frost was suggested by experts in alpine revegetation, and is based on a successful trial in the NSW alps where large areas of alpine meadow needed to be resown and protected following bushfire damage. In NSW apparently the shadecloth was rolled out by helicopter, but here we used the more traditional “roll it down the hill” method.
A big thanks to volunteers Peter D, Peter F, Greg and Adrian, and to PWS Ranger staff Trevor, Judy and Nick for putting in a big effort to get the shadecloth all laid out, and to Wildcare for the grant of materials to allow this important alpine revegetation project to proceed. We will now all watch with interest to see how the alpine grasses and vegetation respond to this extra level of protection.
Volunteers and PWS staff install shadecloth at Mt Mawson
Judy and Trevor get into the swing of the working bee
The Mt Mawson ski slope with shadecloth protection installed to aid revegetation.
