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Wild horses are out of control in the Australian Alps according to conservationists, and doing irreparable damage to the fragile alpine environment.

However, brumby advocates dispute the claims and say alpine horses are part of an iconic bush heritage that must be protected.

It’s a divisive debate and passions always run high.

Aerial surveys of the wild horse population in the Australian Alps, including Kosciuszko National Park between 2003 and 2009, indicate an increase in brumby numbers, from just under 2, 500 to over 7,500 horses.

With recent good seasons and an estimated population growth of between eight to 20 per cent every year, NSW National Parks are projecting that a conservative estimate, would put the current horse numbers in the alps at over 10,000, with over 7000 in Kosciuszko National Park.

Conservationists say environmental destruction in Kosciuszko National Park is at crisis point, with threatened native animal and plant species at risk. They want the population to be aerially culled.

Advocates for these wild horses of the high country reject the population estimates, the claims of lasting environmental damage, and say they will vehemently fight any move towards aerial culling.

Government review puts brumbies back in the spotlight

A review of the Kosciuszko Horse Management plan is currently underway after the NSW Environment Minister, Robyn Parker, called for it to be examined last year.

As a part of the review, a consultation process is underway to bring the polarised community together to decide how the wild horse population in Kosciuszko National Park will be managed.

The discussions are expected to be far from harmonious with the facts about horse numbers, the extent of environmental damage and the best approach to management, all in dispute.

Another round of aerial surveys is expected to be completed in April.

The Government initiated consultation process will put the divisive issues firmly back on the public agenda.

Alpine damage | Culling methods | Case for shooting | Case against shooting | The way forward |

Environmental damage

Conservationists are concerned that the wild horse population in the Australian Alps is causing long lasting damage to the delicate ecosystems and waterways of the fragile alpine environment.

Share Stream bank damage in Kosciuszko National Park from heavy hoofed animals at the headwaters of the Ingegoodbee River, which feeds into the Snowy River.

Ecology experts are particularly concerned about the horses trampling the head waters of the Murrumbidgee, Murray and Snowy Rivers as well as endangered ecological plant species such as the slow growing sphagnum moss, as well as the habitats of threatened native animals such as the broad-toothed rat.

Protected-mountain-area expert Graeme Worboys from the Australian National University has been studying the Kosciuszko environment for over 40 years. He says the impacts of the introduced animal species are horrific.

"These 7000 or more horses are destroying our mountains; they are like a plague.

"They're wrecking the habitats of our native Australian plants and animals and they are impacting one of Australia's great national parks treasures, Kosciuszko National Park," he says.

These 7000 or more horses are destroying our mountains; they are like a plague. Graeme Worboys, the Australian National University.

Kosciuszko was declared as a national park in 1944 and is the largest national park in the state, as well as one of the largest conservation reserves in Australia.

Graeme Worboys says the wild horses are trampling alpine regions and their waterways, which feed into south east Australia’s largest rivers.

"This water is very important. Every bit of water that flows out of these mountains transfers downstream. Most of it ends up in the Murray Darling Basin.

"Something like 30 per cent of the water in the Murray Darling Basin is from these mountains and that is of huge economic significance when you think of the irrigation and all the livelihoods downstream from here. Something like $9.6 billion worth of water have been estimated to be flowing from these mountains every year," Mr Worboys says.

Environmentalists are particularly concerned about wild horses and other hoofed animals trampling on slow growing sphagnum bogs, which are peat-moss-covered water catchments vital to the health of the waterways.

"These mountains evolved without hoofed animals in this small microcosm within this large continent. Many of [the species found here] are not found anywhere else on earth. Once the sphagnum bogs are disturbed it can take an immense amount of time before they can recover," he says.

Kosciuszko National Parks patch ranger, Rob Gibbs, who’s also the project officer of the Kosciuszko horse management review, says the impact wild horses are having on the sphagnum bogs and endangered ecological communities is extensive, particularly in his patch called the Pilot Wilderness.

Share Environmentalists say the moss is slow growing and takes a long time to regenerate after being trampled.

Mr Gibbs says while the horses don't eat the sphagnum moss, they trample it as they search for other plant and grass species to eat around the edges of the bogs, and access the wetlands in which it grows, for drinking water.

"It’s called sphagnum cristatum. It's the water holder. It's the big sponge. It holds seven times its own weight in water.

"It performs the function of slowly releasing that water into the river system, into the wetland system during times of drought and throughout the year.

"It’s being impacted by horses coming in, trampling, and basically squeezing the water out of it. And it's being 'pugged' up, and then it dies off, and it blows away,” he says.

Mr Gibbs says other introduced animals such as feral pigs and deer, which exist in the park, are also affecting the sphagnum bogs.

It’s called sphagnum cristatum. It's the water holder. It holds seven times its own weight in water. It performs the function of slowly releasing that water into the river system during times of drought. Kosciusko National Parks patch ranger, Rob Gibbs

There is also concern the horses are threatening the habitats of rare native species such as the broad-toothed rat, which is listed as a vulnerable species under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act.

It’s only found in Kosciuszko National Park, some Victorian alpine regions and a small area of the Barrington Tops.

"It’s probably more similar to a guinea pig. It’s a herbivore and lives in the interface between snowgrass and the sphagnum bog. The endangered ecological community is its habitat niche.

"With the horses coming through and breaking up that habitat, it’s putting it at greater risk in terms of predation and making it much more difficult for it to move around and breed," he says.

The extent of the environmental damage the animals are doing in the Australian Alps is disputed by advocates for the wild horses.

Culling methods

The only method currently used by NSW National Parks in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP) is passive trapping and removal.

There are 27 trap-yards throughout the park.

NSW National Parks have been removing horses from Kosciuszko alpine areas since 2002, with 2555 removed from the park over the last decade.

Park ranger and senior project officer for the park's Wild Horse Management Plan Review Project, Rob Gibbs, says only 37 per cent of the horses removed from the park were able to be re-homed.

The remaining two thirds, over 1700 horses, ended up going to the abattoir to be euthanised.

Share Wild horses are lured with salt and molasses and then trapped in these yards, there are 27 throughout Kosciuszko National Park.

The trap-yards are set with salt and molasses at the back of the yard to lure the horses in, which Mr Gibbs says can takes months.

"The horses come up through the yard to get to the lure, they trip the tripwire, which then allows the counter weight to bring the gate shut behind them, so then the horses are trapped inside the yard," he says.

Mr Gibbs says the wild horses can get aggressive and stressed, especially when they first come into human contact. It can take hours to load them onto the trucks.

"As you can imagine if a stallion is separated from its mares, so its mares and colts and fillies are inside the trap-yard while it's outside, as sometimes does occur, they can be quite aggressive and be quite upset.

"As soon as people get near to the yards they get very flighty and very stressed," he says.

In 2013, out of 200 horses that were removed from the park, only 94 were re-homed.

Mr Gibbs says this removal method does not keep up with the breeding rates of the wild horse population.

"We’ve got an increasing population of over 1400 horses per year that need to be removed to keep the population static. Our best year of passive trapping and removal has been 675 horses in one year. So as you can see we’re not really even keeping up with that natural population increase," he says.

Other methods of horse management that were considered in the development of the current plan in 2008, include helicopter mustering, fertility control, brumby-running under a contract system which is done in Victorian national parks, roping and mustering using other horses.

Across the border in ACT National Parks, the wild horses are also trapped but they are sedated and shot at close range in the park.

Aerial culling is used as a wild horse management method in Western Australia and in the Northern Territory.

However, brumby advocates say that the alpine country of Kosciuszko National Park and the vast plains of the Kimberley and Northern Territory are so different they cannot be compared.

Conservationists say current methods are insufficient to control horse numbers and protect the waterways and threatened plant species in the park.

Protected mountains expert, Graeme Worboys, says NSW National Parks must be able to aerially cull.

"Every year there are more and more horses. Trapping is not keeping up and rangers need aerial shooting, culling, as a tool, in their tool box to control these horses, as unpleasant as that may be," he says.

The aerial culling of wild horses, especially those of the Snowy Mountains, is an emotionally charged issue. It polarises communities.

In the past, the management of the wild horse population was carried out by Snowy Mountain’s stockmen and the people of the high country.

From the 1850’s the early stockman used the wild horses as a source-pool as part of wild breeding programs to introduce new blood to their own herds.

Jindabyne’s Garry Caldwell, of the Snowy Mountains Horse Riders Association, is a seventh generation Snowy Mountains horseman who grew up riding in what is now Kosciuszko National Park.

His ancestors’ graves and the traditional huts they built, remain in the 'Pilot Wilderness', an area considered to be one of the most affected by the wild horses.

In 1982 the areas was declared wilderness and by the following year all horse riding in the area had been prohibited.

Garry and his wife Leisa Caldwell are vehemently against shooting wild horses in the park and say they asked about horse management strategies at the time of the horse riding ban. But they say national parks staff dismissed the need for a plan.

They say historically, the stockmen would manage the horse population and that they should be allowed access into the park to do so now.

Case for shooting

Some environmentalists and scientists say the impact of wild horses on the fragile alpine environment in Kosciuszko National Park, is at crisis point.

Share Wild horses running in the Kosciuszko National Park

A moratorium on aerial and ground shooting in NSW National Parks restricts parks staff from using the technique to control the wild horse population. But there is pressure to overturn that moratorium.

The Australian National University's Graeme Worboys says the restriction means park rangers are failing to control the wild horse numbers and the damage they're doing.

"Every year there are more horses in Kosciuszko than there were the year before.

"And why is this is the case? It's because our managers do not have the full spectrum of management techniques available to them.

"Shooting is the only method to deal with animals in this sort of environment," Dr Worboys says.

The most controversial method of culling the wild horse population is shooting from a helicopter.

Aerial culling in NSW National Parks has a tense past.

In 2000, NSW RSPCA prosecuted the NSW National Parks for aggravated cruelty to one horse, which did not die immediately after a cull of 606 wild horses in Guy Fawkes River National Park.

After being silent on the issue for almost 15 years, the NSW RSPCA Chief Inspector David OShannessy, says if conditions are met, they would support aerial culling in Kosciuszko National Park.

"The RSCPA accepts that the circumstances may exist where among a suite of other control methods, it is possible that aerial culling may be an appropriate method to be employed, so long as the animals are humanely euthanized," he says.

Share Colin De Pagtor flying his helicopter over Kosciuszko National Park in southern NSW.

Helicopter pilot, Colin De Pagtor, has been flying over Kosciuszko National Park for over a decade.

He says during that time the wild horse population has grown at an alarming rate.

"It seems to me that the numbers are increasing each and every season.

"I saw a mob of 11 horses yesterday on a 15 minute flight. There were three of this season’s foals and there were three of last season’s foals in just one group of 11 horses and that’s typical,

"A lot of the rivers that were formerly very clean with lots of vegetation down to the water line, are now becoming incised and turbid, more and more 'pugged'.

The environment we are in is not just 100 or 200 years old, it is thousands of years old. We have to maintain and look after that environment that was here pre European times as well. Rob Gibbs, park manager and senior project officer for Kosciuszko National Park’s wild horse management plan.

"A lot of the bog areas, it’s become quite noticeable where formerly there were multiple pearls of water, now become a single stream of water through a bog," he says.

Advocates for the brumbies say it is not possible to aerial cull in a humane way, especially in the alpine environment.

Mr De Pagtor disagrees.

"I probably should say that I don't propose to offer my services for aerial culling, but yes I think helicopters would be effective," he says.

NSW National Parks are not directly calling for aerial culling to be introduced.

But park manager and senior project officer for Kosciuszko National Park’s wild horse management plan review, Rob Gibbs, says all methods of controlling the population need to be examined.

"Currently we’re only utilising passive trapping and removal.

"We could look at things like low stress mustering and we hope to be able to run a trial for that in the northern end of the park at some stage, but looking at all of the control options that are utilised elsewhere and seeing if they can be utilised here successfully," he says.

He also says that one of the challenges of his role is removing the emotion that often envelops the issue of wild horses in the alpine park.

"What I've got to do is to try and remove emotion from the argument.

"The environment we are in is not just 100 or 200 years old...it is thousands of years old. We have to maintain and look after that environment that was here pre European times as well.

"For most of us who’ve joined national parks as staff, we don’t enjoy culling animals, whether they be introduced animals or native species for that matter, but we realise that in some instances it's actually required to protect the environment that most of us have joined the organisation to try and do," he says.

Case against shooting

For the people of the high country, the wild horses in the Kosciuszko National Park are far more than just a population of horses.

To them, they are the brumbies of the Snowy Mountains, integral to their history and a bush heritage that must be protected.

Seventh generation Snowy Mountains horseman Garry Caldwell says they're iconic.

"They’re part of the Snowys, part of the mountains, part of our history and part of our heritage," he says.

He refutes NSW National Parks estimations that the wild horse population in Kosciuszko National Park is about 7000 strong.

"There's nowhere near that number. We can go out there and have a fortnight out there camping and see 50 horses and we're riding it all. I went out riding for six hours the other day and saw only 18 horses."

"The numbers that they're stating, they're just not there. If they are I can't find them," he says.

Many local brumby advocates, such as Garry and Leisa Caldwell, say shooting the wild horses is inhumane.

"Shooting them from a helicopter is absolutely not possible to be done humanely," Mrs Caldwell says.

"It’s a moving platform and a moving animal.

"They’re prey animals, and they run from fear. There is no way you’re going to get a humane shot out on a brumby that’s running away," she says.

The majority of horses who are removed using the current trapping and removal method end up at the knackery.

They’re prey animals, and they run from fear. There is no way you’re going to get a humane shot out on a brumby that’s running away. Leisa Caldwell, brumby advocate

Mrs Caldwell says even though many do end up being euthanised it is better than aerial culling.

"It’s still a better option than being gut shot or shot in the back from in a helicopter or from even on the ground. So at least they have a chance," she says.

An original Man from Snowy River, 75-year-old John Welsmore, has ridden through the Kosciuszko high country since he was a child, and caught and broken in brumbies for his children and grandchildren.

He also says that it would be very hard to kill a horse humanely through aerial culling.

"It’s really hard to shoot a horse humanely unless you’re out like I am and your riding out there amongst them. You only get the chance to shoot one or two of them.

"If you’re in a helicopter and shooting them, I don’t care how good you are, I don’t think you can humanely shoot them out of a helicopter," he says.

Share 75-year-old John Welsmore has ridden through the Kosciuszko high country since he was a child.

In 2000, NSW RSPCA prosecuted the NSW National Parks for aggravated cruelty to one horse, which did not die immediately after a cull of 606 wild horses in Guy Fawkes River National Park.

Many brumby advocates still believe that more than one horse died inhumanely in this incident.

The NSW government placed a moratorium on aerial culling after a media backlash and a public outcry.

The need to control the wild horse population at all is also in dispute.

Mrs Caldwell argues the wild horse numbers ebbs and wanes, with climate and weather conditions, such as the 2003 bushfire that burnt out over 70 per cent of Kosciuszko National Park

"I guess the last few years have been good years.

"Seasonally, we’ve had some good feed, so their numbers have grown a little bit, but Mother Nature looks after itself.

"In the 1980s a drought came and wiped a lot of them out, and then in the 1990s there was another drought, which wiped them out again. 1987 there was a big snow and then 2003 (bushfire) killed at least half the population," she says.

Aerial culling of wild horses is carried out in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

John Welsmore says that doesn’t mean it would be an effective method of controlling the Kosciuszko horse population.

"Western Australia has nothing like the amount of trees that are in here. If you went out the back here, you’d have a job to get a shot at one. They’re not so easy to shoot," he says.

Mrs Caldwell also says that in the Kimberley the horses are starving and unhealthy, but the horses in Kosciuszko National Park are in great condition, with a lot of feed available.

In 2006, a memorandum of understanding was signed by the NSW Liberal and National Coalition, including the current NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner, about the management of the National Parks and wilderness areas.

It was an agreement between NSW Liberals, the Nationals and a coalition of NSW horse riders groups, including The Snowy Mountains Horse Riders Association.

One principle in that memorandum was that shooting not be permitted as a management tool.

Mrs Caldwell says now the NSW Coalition is in government, they are beholden to this agreement.

Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner is a patron to the Save the Brumbies advocacy group.

The way forward

It's the obvious clash between the efforts to protect the alpine environment and the passion for protecting the iconic Snowy Mountains brumbies, that makes resolving this issue such a mean feat.

The current review of the horse management plan will bring brumby advocacy groups, the NSW RSPCA, environmental scientists, NSW National Parks and pest management experts together to decide on the way forward.

Share A NSW National Parks and Wildlife map of the Kosciuszko National Parks in southern NSW

There are three primary elements to preparing a new Wild Horse Management Plan.

NSW National Parks and Wildlife staff have been meeting with wild horse advocacy groups, re-homing groups, conservation groups and park users groups over the last four months, with meetings to continue throughout the year.

The Parks service is currently in the process of appointing participants to the Independent Technical Reference Group, a scientific advisory group which will comprise ecologists; experts in wild horse population dynamics, horse ecology and demography; vertebrate pest control experts, and animal welfare experts including the representatives from the Australian Veterinary Association, RSPCA, and Department of Primary Industries staff.

NPWS aims to hold the first meeting of the Independent Technical Reference Group before the end of March with a final report expected in late September.

The other primary element of the review will be another aerial survey of the wild horse population.

This will be the 4th Alps-wide aerial survey since 2001, using a strip transect count method, by helicopter.

It is expected to begin in the last week of March and will take approximately three weeks, with results expected around mid June.

By sometime around March/April next year the Wild Horse Management Plan will redrafted and put out on exhibition for public comment and a new round of community consultations.

Out of this, all parties hope to have their concerns met by the New Wild Horse Management Plan.

The challenge is that the perspectives are so polarised that consensus may be impossible and the impasse could continue.