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Staff Category: Conservation & science committee

Dr April Reside

April is a lecturer in wildlife science at the University of Queensland. Her research encompasses ecology, conservation, and policy, with a particular focus on vertebrates.

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Dr Lynette McLeod

Lynette’s 30 years’ experience has seen her holding professional research positions within NSW Department of Primary Industries and New England University, and working with the community to manage a range of issues, including free-roaming cats, wild dogs and widespread weeds.

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Dr Mark Lonsdale

Mark has been chief of CSIRO Entomology and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, and has served as Co-Chair of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) overseeing IPBES, the UN global biodiversity assessment platform.

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Dr Sarah Legge

Sarah is a Professor at the Australian National University and a Principal Research Fellow with The University of Queensland.

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Ian Thompson (Chair)

Ian has been responsible for Australian Government policy and programs across Landcare and natural resources, water, fisheries, forestry, biosecurity, rural policy and adjustment and drought.

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Dr April Reside

April is a lecturer in wildlife science at the University of Queensland. Her research encompasses ecology, conservation, and policy, with a particular focus on vertebrates.

Read More »

Dr Lynette McLeod

Lynette’s 30 years’ experience has seen her holding professional research positions within NSW Department of Primary Industries and New England University, and working with the community to manage a range of issues, including free-roaming cats, wild dogs and widespread weeds.

Read More »

Dr Mark Lonsdale

Mark has been chief of CSIRO Entomology and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, and has served as Co-Chair of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) overseeing IPBES, the UN global biodiversity assessment platform.

Read More »

Dr Sarah Legge

Sarah is a Professor at the Australian National University and a Principal Research Fellow with The University of Queensland.

Read More »

Ian Thompson (Chair)

Ian has been responsible for Australian Government policy and programs across Landcare and natural resources, water, fisheries, forestry, biosecurity, rural policy and adjustment and drought.

Read More »

Dr April Reside

April is a lecturer in wildlife science at the University of Queensland. Her research encompasses ecology, conservation, and policy, with a particular focus on vertebrates.

Read More »

Dr Lynette McLeod

Lynette’s 30 years’ experience has seen her holding professional research positions within NSW Department of Primary Industries and New England University, and working with the community to manage a range of issues, including free-roaming cats, wild dogs and widespread weeds.

Read More »

Dr Mark Lonsdale

Mark has been chief of CSIRO Entomology and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, and has served as Co-Chair of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) overseeing IPBES, the UN global biodiversity assessment platform.

Read More »

Dr Sarah Legge

Sarah is a Professor at the Australian National University and a Principal Research Fellow with The University of Queensland.

Read More »

Ian Thompson (Chair)

Ian has been responsible for Australian Government policy and programs across Landcare and natural resources, water, fisheries, forestry, biosecurity, rural policy and adjustment and drought.

Read More »

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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]