In wetter areas these basins form Sphagnum bogs, which play an important role in the water cycle.

A key element of these bogs is Sphagnum Moss, which acts as a sponge, absorbing up to twenty times its weight in water.

Trampling by feral animals (pigs, cattle, horses, humans) reduces their ability to absorb and then release water; instead of a steady release, water flows increase significantly in spring, leading to erosion and scouring of river beds, and ceases over summer and autumn, leading to localised drought.

On the alps southern fall, this exists as wet forest and rainforest, a consequence of the higher rainfall on this side of the park.

Rainforest species are shade tolerant and able to regenerate below an undisturbed canopy or in small gaps created when a tree falls.

This can include particular vegetation for foraging, or the presence of older trees with their larger hollows, a requirement for some arboreal mammals and birds.

The montane zone on the alps drier, northern fall consists of dry forest and woodland with eucalypt species such as stringybarks, boxes and peppermints.

Dry forest and woodland abut private land in many areas and as a consequence have been subject to clearing, modification and fragmentation.

Cattle were taken out of Kosciuszko National Park in NSW during the 1950s and 1960s due to concerns about the effect of grazing on water quality for the Snowy River Scheme.

When the Bracks Labor Victorian Government announced plans to end this grazing, the Howard coalition Federal Government floated the idea of using national cultural heritage powers to preserve grazing on the basis of the cultural place given to the mountain cattleman, notably through The Man from Snowy River.

The Australian Alps Walking Track, which begins in Walhalla and extends 650 kilometres (400 mi) north to Canberra, traverses the park.

[12] The following major peaks are located within the Alpine National Park, in order of descending elevation above sea level:[13]