Federal budget must do more than stop the ants
10 May, 2017
Despite containing funds for fire ant eradication, the 2017 federal budget was a disappointing, missed opportunity for environmental biosecurity in Australia.
Despite containing funds for fire ant eradication, the 2017 federal budget was a disappointing, missed opportunity for environmental biosecurity in Australia.
A new report reveals that feral animals and diseases introduced into Australia pose a greater ongoing threat to the nation’s most vulnerable native animals than habitat loss.
After spending a week travelling across Australia with Texan Dr Robert Puckett we can only conclude that he was the perfect person to explain the hellish nature of living with fire ants.
Christmas island lizards are on their way back from the brink of extinction, but before they can roam free, more work needs to be done.
All governments must come to a unanimous decision to boosted funding for red fire ant eradication. So how close are we to getting the unanimous support needed?
Contrast the government’s response to white spot in Logan River prawns to the indifference from authorities when a new environmental invader arrives.
Who will be paying for the enhanced $38 million per year ten-year program needed to eradicate red fire ants from Australia? Learn which states pay what and why it matters.
We’ve just received confirmation that US fire ant expert Dr Robert Puckett will join our Fire Ants Down Under tour next month, visiting five capital Australian cities in just one week.
For 15 years we’ve been battling fire ant infestations in Queensland and we’re losing the fight. Unless federal, state and territory governments back eradication to the hilt all our efforts will have been wasted.
For 15 years we’ve been battling fire ant infestations in Queensland and we’re losing the fight. Unless federal, state and territory governments back eradication to the hilt all our efforts will have been wasted.
Environmental invaders continue to slip into Australia, raising threat levels for our native plants and animals, but are governments finally waking up to the need for tougher environmental biosecurity?
After more than seven years of research, community consultation and biosecurity checks, a micro-wasp from Malaysia has been imported to Christmas Island to control yellow crazy ants in the national park.
Biosecurity Queensland is on the cusp of eradicating electric ants, the only thing holding it back from full eradication is a final push that needs federal and state funding.
Despite containing funds for fire ant eradication, the 2017 federal budget was a disappointing, missed opportunity for environmental biosecurity in Australia.
A new report reveals that feral animals and diseases introduced into Australia pose a greater ongoing threat to the nation’s most vulnerable native animals than habitat loss.
After spending a week travelling across Australia with Texan Dr Robert Puckett we can only conclude that he was the perfect person to explain the hellish nature of living with fire ants.
Christmas island lizards are on their way back from the brink of extinction, but before they can roam free, more work needs to be done.
All governments must come to a unanimous decision to boosted funding for red fire ant eradication. So how close are we to getting the unanimous support needed?
Contrast the government’s response to white spot in Logan River prawns to the indifference from authorities when a new environmental invader arrives.
Who will be paying for the enhanced $38 million per year ten-year program needed to eradicate red fire ants from Australia? Learn which states pay what and why it matters.
We’ve just received confirmation that US fire ant expert Dr Robert Puckett will join our Fire Ants Down Under tour next month, visiting five capital Australian cities in just one week.
For 15 years we’ve been battling fire ant infestations in Queensland and we’re losing the fight. Unless federal, state and territory governments back eradication to the hilt all our efforts will have been wasted.
For 15 years we’ve been battling fire ant infestations in Queensland and we’re losing the fight. Unless federal, state and territory governments back eradication to the hilt all our efforts will have been wasted.
Environmental invaders continue to slip into Australia, raising threat levels for our native plants and animals, but are governments finally waking up to the need for tougher environmental biosecurity?
After more than seven years of research, community consultation and biosecurity checks, a micro-wasp from Malaysia has been imported to Christmas Island to control yellow crazy ants in the national park.
Biosecurity Queensland is on the cusp of eradicating electric ants, the only thing holding it back from full eradication is a final push that needs federal and state funding.
Despite containing funds for fire ant eradication, the 2017 federal budget was a disappointing, missed opportunity for environmental biosecurity in Australia.
A new report reveals that feral animals and diseases introduced into Australia pose a greater ongoing threat to the nation’s most vulnerable native animals than habitat loss.
After spending a week travelling across Australia with Texan Dr Robert Puckett we can only conclude that he was the perfect person to explain the hellish nature of living with fire ants.
Christmas island lizards are on their way back from the brink of extinction, but before they can roam free, more work needs to be done.
All governments must come to a unanimous decision to boosted funding for red fire ant eradication. So how close are we to getting the unanimous support needed?
Contrast the government’s response to white spot in Logan River prawns to the indifference from authorities when a new environmental invader arrives.
Who will be paying for the enhanced $38 million per year ten-year program needed to eradicate red fire ants from Australia? Learn which states pay what and why it matters.
We’ve just received confirmation that US fire ant expert Dr Robert Puckett will join our Fire Ants Down Under tour next month, visiting five capital Australian cities in just one week.
For 15 years we’ve been battling fire ant infestations in Queensland and we’re losing the fight. Unless federal, state and territory governments back eradication to the hilt all our efforts will have been wasted.
For 15 years we’ve been battling fire ant infestations in Queensland and we’re losing the fight. Unless federal, state and territory governments back eradication to the hilt all our efforts will have been wasted.
Environmental invaders continue to slip into Australia, raising threat levels for our native plants and animals, but are governments finally waking up to the need for tougher environmental biosecurity?
After more than seven years of research, community consultation and biosecurity checks, a micro-wasp from Malaysia has been imported to Christmas Island to control yellow crazy ants in the national park.
Biosecurity Queensland is on the cusp of eradicating electric ants, the only thing holding it back from full eradication is a final push that needs federal and state funding.
Get our blog the Feral Herald delivered to your inbox.
The Invasive Species Council was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to protect nature from harmful pests, weeds and diseases.
The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.