Sharing one of the comments from the discussion on Aerial culling in the new management plan under scrutiny till the 9th the post below is from Keith Muir Colong foundation Feral Horses continue to increase in Kosciuszko National Park The 2014 Australian Alps horse aerial survey has estimated that there are about 6,000 wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park, an increase on the 2009 estimate of 4,200 horses. The combined effects of removal of 2,600 horses by trapping, wildfires and drought have not halted the increase. The next most common pest in the park was deer, with just over 1000 recorded and it too is on the increase. In mid-2015 the National Parks and Wildlife will release a new draft Wild Horse Management Plan for Kosciuszko National Park. The NPWS needs the support of a strong Environment Minister to stop the sentimental nonsense around horses dictating the continued use of ineffective and expensive pest control measures. The current trapping arrangements cause excessive distress to the horses captured and only a third of these horses are re-homed, the rest are hauled off park to be killed for dog food. There are 400,000 feral horses in Australia, so none need to be kept in national parks for sentimental reasons where they continue degrade sensitive environments like swamps, wetlands and stream banks. Feral horses are undoing the environmental restoration within the national park that cost tens of millions of dollars. Horse populations in the United States of America are kept effectively under control, even though their native vegetation is adapted to grazing by large ungulates like horses than the Australian bush. The Americans only have about 40,000 horses on their rangelands, and only a small fraction of this number is found in their national parks. The claim that feral horses can’t be eradicated from Kosciuszko National Park is wrong. The cattle and sheep were, and with political will the horse can be too. Feral horses were almost eradicated in the Blue Mountains, and the feral cattle were eradicated in the 1990s. The cost of trapping and removal at over $1000 per horse is too much and is only slowing the population growth, not solving the problem. This poor control outcome should give a clear direction to the NSW Government that it must lift the NSW ban on the most humane, effective and, arguably, least ecologically damaging method of removing horses from national parks - aerial shooting. Keith Muir, Colong Foundation for Wilderness by Colong Wild
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 05:01:12 +0000