The Minister for the Environment, Mick Gentlemen has hit out at feral horse numbers in the New South Wales high country saying they have doubled in number and are now threatening ACT water catchments.
Mr Gentlemen said aerial survey numbers released by the Australian Alps Liaison Committee show that close to 25,000 feral horses are roaming across three large areas of the Australian Alps national parks – more than double the number found in the same areas five years ago.
“Feral horse populations have significantly increased in the Australian high country and are threatening our pristine water catchments and the ecology of Namadgi National Park,” Mr Gentlemen said.
“The integrity of our high-country areas is vital to preserve the quality of Canberra’s drinking water and the water that flows from the Australian Alps, which contributes more than 30 per cent of inflows into the Murray-Darling system,” he said.
He said the estimated feral horse populations of the areas surveyed had increased from 9,180 in 2014 to 25,318 in 2019 – an increase of 23 per cent per year.
“I recently toured impacted areas to survey the damage and eroded waterways these heavy hoofed feral animals cause,” Mr Gentlemen said.
He said he had raised the issue with his State and Federal counterparts and would continue to do so.
“We need to conserve our water quality and protect critically endangered animals like the northern corroboree frog, which lives in the moist alpine bogs of the ACT high country,” Mr Gentlemen said.
“Feral horses do not recognise state boundaries and the scientific evidence is clear – heavy hoofed pests such as feral horses are damaging the landscape.”
He said the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate had recently finalised a review of the ACT’s feral horse management plan, finding it effectively prevented the re-establishment of feral horse populations in Namadgi National Park.
The review also acknowledged the increased threat from significant feral horse populations in the northern end of Kosciuszko National Park bordering the ACT.
Mr Gentleman said the findings of the review would inform a new ACT feral horse management plan to be released in 2020.
The Territory’s 23-page current plan can be accessed at this PS News link.
