Xylella: a feared and curious disease
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?
Our ebulletin the Feral Herald covers conservation news and actions to help you protect Australia's native plants and wildlife from invasive species.
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?
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?
New Zealanders have just discovered that the serious plant fungal disease, myrtle rust, has arrived on their shores. What can they learn from Australia’s experience?
Our CEO Andrew Cox recently visited Norfolk Island in the Pacific to learn about efforts tackling invasive species and building a biosecurity system, the keys to its future conservation success.
Last year the New Zealand government announced plans to be predator free by 2050, a challenging concept for the many Australians gathered at the Australasian Vertebrate Pest Management
A new project with Monash University has just begun that will work out what environmental pests that we should be trying to stop entering Australia and how they will arrive.
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.
The 3rd Australian Biosecurity Symposium is making waves! The Symposium will be held at SeaWorld Resort on the Gold Coast from 27-29 August 2024.Our symposium
Lyall Grieve is Conservation and Biosecurity Analyst for the Invasive Species Council. A closing window of opportunity Australian environmental protection has reached the moment of
Update: This article has been amended to improve accuracy. On a recent visit to Barrington Tops National Park, Tim Low and Carol Booth experienced the
Rampant invasive species and thriving Country cannot coexist. It’s one or the other. And we can’t have a healthy Indigenous culture without healthy Country. Invasive
Reece Pianta is the Advocacy Manager at the Invasive Species Council. I had heard about the fire ant fields in Texas – no-go zones where
Northern Queensland’s delicate ecosystems hang in the balance – their future under threat from ravenous supercolonies of yellow crazy ants. To deal with the problem, we first need to identify any locations the ants have spread to. You can help! Join the Bug Hunt and help our bug-ologists track invasive and at-risk native insects in Australia.
The Gondwanan Galaxiidae fish family has managed to survive millions of years in the freshwater ecosystems of Australia. Now, their existence hangs by a thread as ten of the species, including the critically endangered Kosciuszko galaxias have been listed as threatened under our national environmental law.
Fire ants are on the march across Australia. Here are 8 facts about them you should know.
Cats have contributed to the extinction of 27 of Australia’s native animals, including the Yallara (lesser bilby) and the paradise parrot. Both species are now lost from our memories forever. Now, ISC is working with Thylation — the group behind the Felixer to supply local land managers with innovative new devices that use artificial intelligence to control feral cats and save Australia’s threatened species.
“For modern Australia to say no, I think that’s their loss. I feel sorry for them. But I mostly feel sorry for Country and our future generations.”
Voice of Country program lead and ISC Indigenous Ambassador, Richard Swain reflects on the referendum outcome and the journey to heal Country.
Unfortunately the lofty promise of the National Biosecurity Strategy is at risk.
On 18 October the Decade of Biosecurity (DoB) project partners came together to launch the Parliamentary Friends of Biosecurity group at Parliament House in Canberra. The group will elevate biosecurity issues and highlight the importance of a strong well-resourced biosecurity system.
We celebrated a huge win for nature last month, with aerial culling of feral horses finally allowed in Kosciuszko National Park. But how did the ban come about and what’s next for the Reclaim Kosci campaign?
The flowers of a rubber vine are annoyingly pretty. But its vanity is also the secret to its downfall along the Fitzroy River in Western Australia.
Australia needs an ongoing, sustainable source of funding to improve our biosecurity system so it can protect our environment.
The Victorian government has an opportunity to make huge inroads into the impacts of feral cats, but it can only do so if changes are made to the regulations governing the use of traps in that state.
Are you up for a challenging but rewarding volunteer position on Australia’s incredible Lord Howe Island?
Could Australia’s recycling crisis be solved by replacing wooden pallets with plastic pallets? At the same time reducing the risk of dangerous new insects sneaking past biosecurity borders hidden in wooden pallets?
Join us on Thursday, August 22 when the NSW Parliament debates the impacts of feral horses on Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral deer are destroying years of conservation work restoring local bushland.
Just before Mother’s Day every year millions of flowers from across the world flood in to Australia. It is one of the most dangerous days on our calendar.
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?
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. The Invasive Species Council supports voting ‘YES’ for a Voice to Parliament.
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.