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?
Join us from 6pm on Tuesday 20 March at Monash University’s Clayton Campus in Victoria for a fiery Q&A debate about invasive ants, bugs and other insects.
Bulldoze trees, and you wipe out plants and animals. Introduce a new predator, competitor or disease or let a weed take over can just as effectively send species on the road to extinction.
The wily fox has made it to two of Australia’s favourite holiday destinations – Fraser and South Stradbroke islands. It’s time to launch fully funded eradication programs before the fox becomes entrenched.
The wily fox has made it to two of Australia’s favourite holiday destinations – Fraser and South Stradbroke islands. It’s time to launch fully funded eradication programs before the fox becomes entrenched.
The fifth Island Arks Symposium had many important take-home messages, but the one that stood out for our CEO Andrew Cox was that invasive species issues on Pacific islands are becoming ‘agonisingly important’.
Along with land clearing, invasive species are the major threat to wildlife in Queensland. Yet biosecurity has been missing from Queensland election headlines.
Australia should seize the opportunity to better protect itself from dangerous new invasive species by adopting the recommendations of an independent review of the biosecurity system.
A campaign to fix the country’s leaky environmental borders and keep dangerous new environmental pests and diseases out. Send your message to the Deputy Prime Minister today.
The release of our report Norfolk Island: Protecting an Ocean Jewel, sets a path for reversing the decline of many threatened species on the island and eradicating harmful invaders.
After exhaustive research, one of Australia’s most cherished island sanctuaries Lord Howe Island is about to hit go on its rat eradication project.
The terrible destructive force of Hurricane Harvey made headlines not just for its human toll, but also for forcing fire ants out of their nests. Brisbane expat Jennifer Singfield tells us what it’s like living with fire ants.
The introduction of new crops or livestock can go spectacularly wrong. Question is, are those responsible for promoting new crops and livestock in Australia showing enough caution?
A review of Australia’s biosecurity arrangements has highlighted the need for much greater focus on protecting the natural environment from invasive species.
New research has found that almost nowhere in Australia is safe from growing feral deer numbers, with future mapping showing the animals could occupy most of the continent, including the interior.
A Senate environment committee that endorsed the commercial use of Tasmanian feral bumblebees seemed oblivious to the serious impacts this invasive species can cause.
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.