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Conservation groups boycott call for nominations for Wild Horse Community Advisory Panel

Leading conservation groups, including the Invasive Species Council, National Parks Association of NSW, Colong Foundation for Wilderness, Nature Conservation Council of NSW and the National Parks Association of the ACT, will boycott the NSW Government’s call for nominations for the Wild Horse Community Advisory Panel. To do otherwise would be to lend credibility to a process that over-rides the National Parks and Wildlife Act.

The call for nominations comes on the same day that the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee listed “the Degradation and loss by Feral Horses (brumbies, wild horses), Equus caballus” as a key threatening process under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act, highlighting the absurdity of the Wild Horse Heritage Act that hamstrings the ability of the National Parks and Wildlife Service to remove horses and reduce their impact.

Feral horses are transforming the ecosystems of Kosciuszko National Park and driving 23 threatened plant species and 11 threatened animal species, ten of which are critically endangered, toward extinction.

The NSW Government is required to establish the Community Advisory Panel to provide advice to the Minister for the Environment on the preparation of a wild horse heritage management plan under the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act 2018. The highly controversial Act was passed by the NSW Parliament on 6 June 2018 following its introduction by Deputy Premier, John Barilaro, and resulted in the public resignation of a member of the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Panel.

“Having seen the circumstances surrounding the introduction of the Wild Horse Heritage Act, we do not believe that this panel will have the best interests of Kosciuszko National Park and its wildlife at heart, said National Parks Association of NSW CEO, Alix Goodwin.

“NPA will not participate in a process to develop a plan that values an introduced species over threatened native species and ecological communities in Kosciuszko National Park.

“By introducing the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act and its requirement to establish the Community Advisory Panel, Mr Barilaro has single-handedly destroyed the legitimate and painstaking consultation undertaken by the National Parks and Wildlife Service over a three-year period that resulted in the draft 2016 Wild Horse Management Plan.

“The establishment of the Wild Horse Community Advisory Panel is a waste of taxpayers money, and the resources being expended on this unnecessary process would be better directed to removing feral horses from Kosciuszko National Park,” Ms Goodwin said.

“It’s time for the NSW Government to abandon the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act and take urgent action to cull horses in the iconic Kosciuszko National Park,” said Keith Muir, director at the Colong Foundation for Wilderness.

Reclaim Kosci

The Invasive Species Council is fighting back against the failure to protect Kosciuszko National Park from feral horses and is the lead organisation behind Reclaim Kosci, which is:

  • Raising awareness about the impacts of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park.
  • Championing the campaign to repeal the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act 2018.
  • Seeking a substantial reduction in the feral horse population in Kosciuszko National Park through humane and effective means.

[button link=”https://reclaimkosci.org.au/”]Visit ReclaimKosci.org.au >>[/button]

Related Content

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A volunteer clears out gorse with the Friends of Knocklofty Bushcare group.
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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.

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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]