More than just pulling weeds: the essential role we all play in biosecurity
8 July, 2019
Protecting Australia from invasive species is not just for the ‘professionals’; the community could play a much larger role.
Our ebulletin the Feral Herald covers conservation news and actions to help you protect Australia's native plants and wildlife from invasive species.
Protecting Australia from invasive species is not just for the ‘professionals’; the community could play a much larger role.
The future of the Wet Tropics Management Authority’s Yellow Crazy Ant Eradication Program has been locked in with the Queensland Government locking in $9 million in funding to the project.
A stunning new book by Kirsha Kaechele begs the question, can we see invasive species as not just a problem to be exterminated, but also as a potential asset?
Remotely controlled gates are being used to trap feral pigs in far northwest Victoria.
Ecologist Nicki de Preu takes a look at changes to South Australia’s declared pests list and a new policy on new and emerging pests.
An audit report looking at NSW biosecurity responses and compliance released this week reveals that NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has been found wanting.
1257 of Australia’s listed threatened species are on death row because of environmental invaders like feral cats, rabbits, weeds and the killer plant disease Phytophthora.
1257 of Australia’s listed threatened species are on death row because of environmental invaders like feral cats, rabbits, weeds and the killer plant disease Phytophthora.
Invasive species are one of the biggest drivers of environmental loss in Australia, and threaten our native animals and plants more than any other single factor.
Is the Animal Justice Party condemning Australia’s threatened species to extinction by refusing to create policies based on science?
Is Australia ready to fend off insect armageddon?
Victoria has released a park plan to protect its fragile river red gum forests and wetlands from feral horses. Have your say by supporting the plan.
NSW goes to the polls on Saturday 23 March. Do you know where the major parties stand on environmental weeds, pests and feral animals?
Our CEO visited Canada to address two invasive species forums. We look at how responses to invasive species are handled differently in Canada compared with Australia.
Australia is made great strides in environmental biosecurity over the past year, but have we turned the corner yet?
A spate of fire ant discoveries in Queensland has set alarm bells ringing, but instead we should treat them as a sign the new eradication program is beginning to hit its straps.
Environmental biosecurity might still be a mouthful for most Australians, but it is gaining traction within government circles, and needs to become a much greater focus when we talk about protecting the nation from future environmental threats.
On Wednesday, 26 July, Australia’s agriculture ministers signed off on a new, $411 million eradication program. Fire ant fight 2.0 is a fight we must win.
A five-year review could shake-up Australia’s biosecurity arrangements, finally putting environmental pests and diseases on a par with agricultural and human health threats.
Tick, tick, tick. That’s the sound of invasive browsing ants, an environmental time bomb if they have escaped eradication efforts in Darwin.
Biosecurity Queensland received a rude shock recently when deadly fire ants turned up 70km north of Brisbane’s containment zone.
While keeping your gear clean may feel like a chore, it can actually go a long way in helping to keep our parks and reserves free of weeds and soil-borne diseases, says bushwalk leader Caro Ryan.
Securing Australia’s agricultural industries from dangerous new invasive species has long been the top priority in our biosecurity systems, but when it comes to environmental risks we haven’t fared so well. Well, that’s starting to change.
Securing Australia’s agricultural industries from dangerous new invasive species has long been the top priority in our biosecurity systems, but when it comes to environmental risks we haven’t fared so well. Well, that’s starting to change.
Biosecurity beagles in Hobart, dogs sniffing out orange hawkweed in the alps and a terrier with a penchant for cat eradication are just some of the animal eco-warriors you will meet in a new book by Nic Gill.
We led the call for governments across the country to fully fund the complete eradication of red fire ants from Australia. Now we look at how the program can get the job done.
A locally-led campaign to eradicate yellow crazy ants has resulted in native wildlife finally returning to wet tropics rainforest just north of Cairns.
The NSW government has failed to properly address the growing threat of feral deer, eradication of red-eared slider turtles or the spread of redfin perch.
Last year it was listed as Australia’s Number 1 National Priority Plant Pest, but how many of you have ever heard about Xylella fastidiosa? And could it threaten our native plants?
When development began on Barrow Island’s highly controversial Gorgon gas project many feared the massive development would bring with it unwelcome new inhabitants to the island paradise. Did it?
One of the bad boys of the weed world pampas grass is making a comeback across NSW.
Dr Annelise Wiebkin is ready to tackle one of Australia’s worse emerging pest animal problems – feral deer.
Parks Victoria has a chance to rid the state’s Alpine National Park of feral horses in the next decade. Can it do it?
Bushwalkers, rural property owners and campers called on to help map spread of feral deer across Tasmania.
Pet cats can bring love into your world, but if not cared for properly they can also bring unwanted visitors such as diseases.
Removing deer and other feral animals from some of the state’s most popular national parks is a critical step in helping nature recover from the 2019-20 bushfires.
The cost of important alpine research in Victoria’s Bogong High Plains is being pushed up by the encroachment of sambar deer and feral horses.
The successful eradication of all pest animals on Macquarie Island has paved the way for an incredible explosion in bird populations.
We pay tribute to Ian Thompson, Australia’s first Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer.
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Our protected areas are being trashed, trampled, choked and polluted by an onslaught of invaders. Invasive species are already the overwhelming driver of our animal extinction rate, and are expected to cause 75 of the next 100 extinctions.
But you can help to turn this around and create a wildlife revival in Australia.
From numbats to night parrots, a tax-deductible donation today can help defend our wildlife against the threat of invasive weeds, predators, and diseases.
As the only national advocacy environment group dedicated to stopping this mega threat, your gift will make a big difference.
A silent crisis is unfolding across Australia. Every year, billions of native animals are hunted and killed by cats and foxes. Fire ants continue to spread and threaten human health. And the deadly strain of bird flu looms on the horizon. Your donation today will be used to put the invasive species threat in the media, make invasive species a government priority, ensure governments take rapid action to protect nature and our remarkable native wildlife from invasives-led extinction, death and destruction.
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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.