More hazards than just wind and cold

Forest and Bird, Issue 281, 1 August 1996, Page 46

More hazards than just wind and cold

VEN IN THEIR MOUNTAIN 2 fastness, alpine plants are not safe from human intervention. Alpine vegetation is adapted to kea beaks and grasshopper jaws, but not to the hungry mouths and sharp hooves of introduced sheep, deer, goats and horses. Sheep still graze alpine herbs on South Island high country runs extending to the mountaintops. The tenures of many of these publicly owned leases are currently being reviewed and such fragile areas will hopefully be surrendered to conservation management. Thar, the Himalayan mountain goat, were introduced to the Southern Alps early this century. Although the population has been reduced by helicopter hunting, the Department of Conservation seems determined to

retain a managed herd rather than eliminate the animals altogether. This is regrettable since eradication is feasible and goats, perhaps more than any other species, climb higher, eat a greater range of plants (including otherwise inedible ones), and continue to thrive and multiply even as they degrade their habitat. A new and less tangible threat now faces alpine floras worldwide. The Greenhouse Effect will raise temperatures — probably too quickly for specialised plant species to adapt — and plant communities are expected to shift, in order to follow their favoured environment. Lowland forest may extend further up the mountain, but if the mountain isn’t high enough there is nowhere for alpine plants to go.