Stopping the weed crisis in NSW

Our Work  |  Weeds  |  Photo: Matthew Baker

After land clearing, weeds are recognised as the most serious threat to endangered native plants and animals in NSW.

This threat is rapidly increasing as more weed species are introduced and spread into new areas.

That’s why the Invasive Species Council has prepared Stopping NSW’s Creeping Peril, a 26-page report calling for concerted action, largely from the NSW Government, to address the state’s growing weed problem.

The report has been endorsed by 30 organisations that represent weed experts, bush regenerators, land managers, volunteer weed groups and national, state and local conservation groups.

Stopping NSW’s Creeping Peril

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It makes 10 detailed recommendations calling for:

  1. Restricting new plant introductions to those assessed as low risk.
  2. Eradicating new invaders where feasible and preventing the spread of others into new areas.
  3. Controlling weeds to protect the environment and economy.
  4. Requiring a duty of care and implementing the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
  5. Using federal laws to address nationally significant weed threats.
  6. Increasing the priority of weed management to adapt to climate change.
  7. Developing governance arrangements that reflect the priority of weed threats for both the environment and agriculture, and provide for regional authority to implement weed plans.
  8. Providing resources sufficient to achieve priority outcomes.
    9 & 10. Supporting research and educational programs.

Why we need change

More than $50 million of public money (about half from state government), supplemented by a large voluntary expenditure and effort, is currently being spent on weed control in NSW.

However, the effort to control weeds is not keeping up with the rapid spread of weeds, and the NSW Government has conceded it is unlikely to exceed its 2015 target of ‘a reduction in the impact of invasive species’.

Weeds imperil more than 40% of NSW threatened species (mostly plants) and about 90% of endangered ecological communities.

  • 340 environmental weeds are recognised in NSW. Most were deliberately introduced as garden and pasture plants.
  • There are already more than 30,000 exotic plant species in Australia (mostly cultivated), and more than 99% can be freely sold and planted in NSW. This includes many thousands of new potential weeds that can be introduced into NSW without risk assessment.
  • An average of 7.5 exotic plant species have established in the wild in NSW each year since colonisation, with the total now at 1665. That rate has increased in recent decades.
  • Many of these new weeds will become the cane toads of the future as they spread into new areas.

Taking action on weeds creates substantial environmental, social and economic advantages. Weed management is one of the biggest gaps in NSW environmental laws and policies.

ISC calls on the NSW Government and all political parties to embrace the recommendations. The changes can be adopted as part of the NSW Noxious Weeds Act.

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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.

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]