NSW fails on pest control: Time to let hunters help

Posted on 23 December 2011 by Content Manager

State of the Environment reports show how pest control is failing and why it needs the aid of hunters, yet the Shooters and Fishers Party is still fighting against blinkered politics that will not consider a cost-efficient and effective contribution to the problem.

NSW needs more resources to tackle a growing problem, yet this state’s government is ignoring the tested and proven role Conservation Hunters can play. They have played it successfully since 2006 in our State Forests.

Pest control in every state of Australia is not working, according to the 2011 Australian SOE report, which says “every recent state and territory report has ... recognised that measures taken in the previous reporting period have not achieved their objectives of slowing or reversing drivers of biodiversity decline.”

It also says, “invasive species form the second most pervasive threat to native vegetation, affecting 90% of all classes, an increase from 75% in 2006.”

Let’s look at how NSW is faring now. The 2009 NSW SOE report tells us:

• - 2.3 million hectares of National Park land is affected by pests
• - The intensive control of invasive species that is necessary to improve the condition of flora and fauna is largely limited to some conservation reserves (only some!)
• - The main vertebrate pests found in NSW are now widespread across the state; no part of NSW is unaffected by the main pest animal species
• - And this crucial point: “It is clear … that the scale of the task of controlling the impacts of widespread invasive species vastly exceeds the resources available”

The SOE reports provide damning evidence of neglect and inefficiency by the NSW Government in controlling feral pests in National Parks.

Meanwhile, Conservation Hunters have removed an estimated 660,000 feral and game animals from State Forests and private land in NSW since 2006.

Conservation Hunters have brought direct and indirect benefits of over $50 million to the state.

Conservation Hunters do all this at their own expense, providing a free service to the taxpayers and environment of NSW.

The NSW Government must let licensed Conservation Hunters operate in National Parks and consider hunting as an integral part of the Regional Pest Management Strategies currently being examined by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.