In the face of an invasion meltdown
21 February, 2024
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
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
An independent review of the NSW Government’s trial of aerial shooting for feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park has found that the removal of 270 feral horses was conducted without any adverse animal welfare events and in line with standard operating procedures.
Ambitious South Australian feral deer eradication plan welcomed
The Invasive Species Council has welcomed the release today by Environment Minister Plibersek of a new national plan to tackle feral goats.
Today our native wildlife and mountain streams have had a huge win
Senate calls for urgent action on feral horses to save the Australian Alps
The important decision by the NSW Government to consider aerial control in Kosciuszko reflects that the public mood has shifted on this issue.
Australia needs an ongoing, sustainable source of funding to improve our biosecurity system so it can protect our environment.
We visited Kosciuszko National Park with Penny Sharpe, NSW’s new environment minister, where we face rising feral horse numbers.
The federal government’s own Threatened Species Scientific Committee have sounded the alarm bell on the impacts of feral horses on Australia’s threatened native wildlife.
The Invasive Species Council has congratulated Premier-elect Chris Minns on Labor’s decisive victory in the NSW election, saying that Labor has now been given a clear mandate for urgent action to reduce the more than 18,000 feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park.
With the NSW election just weeks away, where do the major parties stand on ensuring funding and policies to manage feral horses, deer, weeds, cats and other invasive species are top priorities for NSW? Here are highlights from our work on the ground as of 8 March.
Environment minister Plibersek has recognised the dismal failings of our national environmental laws. Her commitment to rewrite this law coupled with her commitment to zero new extinctions provides an exciting opportunity to establish a new era in nature conservation.
Biosecurity is an increasing feature in all our lives. The detection of varroa mites in 2022 saw the emergency destruction of tens of thousands of commercial and feral honey bee hives in NSW; a red fire ant outbreak in Queensland threatens our Aussie way of life forever; and foot-and-mouth disease looms on our border.
The Invasive Species Council welcomes a Senate inquiry initiated by ACT Senator David Pocock into the management of feral horses and other hard-hoofed invasive species in Australia’s national heritage-listed Australian Alps.
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
An independent review of the NSW Government’s trial of aerial shooting for feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park has found that the removal of 270 feral horses was conducted without any adverse animal welfare events and in line with standard operating procedures.
Ambitious South Australian feral deer eradication plan welcomed
The Invasive Species Council has welcomed the release today by Environment Minister Plibersek of a new national plan to tackle feral goats.
Today our native wildlife and mountain streams have had a huge win
Senate calls for urgent action on feral horses to save the Australian Alps
The important decision by the NSW Government to consider aerial control in Kosciuszko reflects that the public mood has shifted on this issue.
Australia needs an ongoing, sustainable source of funding to improve our biosecurity system so it can protect our environment.
We visited Kosciuszko National Park with Penny Sharpe, NSW’s new environment minister, where we face rising feral horse numbers.
The federal government’s own Threatened Species Scientific Committee have sounded the alarm bell on the impacts of feral horses on Australia’s threatened native wildlife.
The Invasive Species Council has congratulated Premier-elect Chris Minns on Labor’s decisive victory in the NSW election, saying that Labor has now been given a clear mandate for urgent action to reduce the more than 18,000 feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park.
With the NSW election just weeks away, where do the major parties stand on ensuring funding and policies to manage feral horses, deer, weeds, cats and other invasive species are top priorities for NSW? Here are highlights from our work on the ground as of 8 March.
Environment minister Plibersek has recognised the dismal failings of our national environmental laws. Her commitment to rewrite this law coupled with her commitment to zero new extinctions provides an exciting opportunity to establish a new era in nature conservation.
Biosecurity is an increasing feature in all our lives. The detection of varroa mites in 2022 saw the emergency destruction of tens of thousands of commercial and feral honey bee hives in NSW; a red fire ant outbreak in Queensland threatens our Aussie way of life forever; and foot-and-mouth disease looms on our border.
The Invasive Species Council welcomes a Senate inquiry initiated by ACT Senator David Pocock into the management of feral horses and other hard-hoofed invasive species in Australia’s national heritage-listed Australian Alps.
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
An independent review of the NSW Government’s trial of aerial shooting for feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park has found that the removal of 270 feral horses was conducted without any adverse animal welfare events and in line with standard operating procedures.
Ambitious South Australian feral deer eradication plan welcomed
The Invasive Species Council has welcomed the release today by Environment Minister Plibersek of a new national plan to tackle feral goats.
Today our native wildlife and mountain streams have had a huge win
Senate calls for urgent action on feral horses to save the Australian Alps
The important decision by the NSW Government to consider aerial control in Kosciuszko reflects that the public mood has shifted on this issue.
Australia needs an ongoing, sustainable source of funding to improve our biosecurity system so it can protect our environment.
We visited Kosciuszko National Park with Penny Sharpe, NSW’s new environment minister, where we face rising feral horse numbers.
The federal government’s own Threatened Species Scientific Committee have sounded the alarm bell on the impacts of feral horses on Australia’s threatened native wildlife.
The Invasive Species Council has congratulated Premier-elect Chris Minns on Labor’s decisive victory in the NSW election, saying that Labor has now been given a clear mandate for urgent action to reduce the more than 18,000 feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park.
With the NSW election just weeks away, where do the major parties stand on ensuring funding and policies to manage feral horses, deer, weeds, cats and other invasive species are top priorities for NSW? Here are highlights from our work on the ground as of 8 March.
Environment minister Plibersek has recognised the dismal failings of our national environmental laws. Her commitment to rewrite this law coupled with her commitment to zero new extinctions provides an exciting opportunity to establish a new era in nature conservation.
Biosecurity is an increasing feature in all our lives. The detection of varroa mites in 2022 saw the emergency destruction of tens of thousands of commercial and feral honey bee hives in NSW; a red fire ant outbreak in Queensland threatens our Aussie way of life forever; and foot-and-mouth disease looms on our border.
The Invasive Species Council welcomes a Senate inquiry initiated by ACT Senator David Pocock into the management of feral horses and other hard-hoofed invasive species in Australia’s national heritage-listed Australian Alps.
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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.