Donate
Donate
Donate

Pest and weed strategies let us down

cnt-weeds-pests

If you read the newly-released draft national strategies on weeds and feral animals you might have thought the white flag had been hoisted.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, these documents ‘describe how Australian local, state and federal government agencies work with the community and industry to prevent the spread of new pest animals [and] manage issues in relation to weeds’.

While they contain sound goals and priorities such as a focus on prevention, early intervention and minimising the impact of established pests and weeds, they have no substance. There are no actions, no new initiatives. The 2007 strategies, the strategies’ predecessors, had 72 actions.

The new draft strategies effectively absolve the Australian Government of any leadership role, there are few coordinated initiatives and they rely on action by each state government, industry and the community.

For weeds, the Weeds of National Significance program that was transferred to the states in 2013 remains without national funding and the national weed spread prevention plan that was an incomplete action in the 2007 strategy is no longer mentioned.

There is no coordinated plan to reduce the number of weedy plants being sold in nurseries, no attempt to standardise weed listings across the states, no action to tackle the illegal internet trade of weed seeds, no support for a weeds cooperative research centre style body and no mention of the need for a research, development and evaluation strategy for environmental weeds.

For pest animals, the strategy emphasises the control of established pests. Action on new pests is vague and non-committal. The ring-necked parakeet is highlighted as a pet bird with ‘extreme pest potential’ in a case study. Its impacts are rated ‘severe’ yet no action is proposed to address this major threat.

The draft Australian Pest Animal Strategy and the Australian Weeds Strategy were prepared by the federal, state and territory governments with no community input. They will operate from 2017 to 2027 and be reviewed after five years.

Make your submission now

Comments on the draft strategies are open until 5pm 14 October 2016.

Related Content

Solutions to Secure Australia – Invasive Weeds, Pests and Diseases by Australian Biosecurity Group 2005
Counting horses in Kosciuszko: a critique of the ‘independent’ survey
Overland Track
Feral deer threat to Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area – submission to UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre

Share this post

Facebook
Twitter
Email

Other posts

Email Updates

Sign up for our ebulletin the the Feral Herald and regular campaign updates.

Recent Stories

Archives

Save the Snowies

Join thousands of Australians who are standing up for Kosciuszko National Park!

The NSW government is one step away from allowing aerial control of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park. This is huge news and a crucial step for our threatened native wildlife and the fragile alpine ecosystems they call home.

Take action now

Hear from us when it matters

Your support to protect critically endangered and vulnerable species from extinction is vital. Together, we can ensure governments prioritise action on invasive species and protect our wildlife and iconic places.

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.

Our Work

About Us

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.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]


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.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]