The Minister for the Environment, Mick Gentleman has announced an updated plan to manage feral horses in Namadgi National Park.
Mr Gentleman said research showed that feral horses were the largest cause of environmental degradation throughout Australia’s alpine parks, reversing decades of costly alpine recovery programs.
“The ACT’s existing management plan, which was first prepared in 2004 and updated in 2007, has successfully prevented the establishment of feral horse populations within Namadgi,” Mr Gentleman said.
“However, recent modelling has shown that feral horse populations in the Alps will continue to grow under the current management regimes in our neighbouring States.”
He said the growth in Kosciuszko National Park to around 6,000 horses was predicted to lead to expansions into the ACT.
“We simply cannot let feral horses put our water supply and native flora and fauna at risk,” Mr Gentleman said.
“Updating the management plan will draw on the latest scientific information to put us in a better position to respond to emerging threats,” he said.
“The revised Feral Horse Management Plan will outline a suite of management strategies and actions to prevent establishment of feral horses in Namadgi.”
He said the Government would shortly seek to officially declare feral horses as pest animals as part of a broader community consultation on a Pest Animals Declaration.
He said a final version of the updated management plan was expected in late 2019.
