Snowy 2.0 power lines clearing ‘will despoil’ long swathe of Kosciuszko national park, wildlife groups say

The construction site for Snowy 2.0. The NSW government altered a management plan for Kosciuszko national park to allow land clearing for powerlines connected to the project. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

A long swathe of Kosciuszko national park will be cleared for giant power transmission lines, visible for many kilometres, after New South Wales altered a park management plan to allow a link between the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project and the wider grid.

The revision to the 2006 park plan, which environmental groups say they only learned of weeks later, altered a provision requiring “all additional telecommunication and transmission lines to be located underground”. The state government inserted “except those constructed as part of the Snowy 2.0 Project”.