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Control of
feral animals back in the hands of NPWS
On 4 July 2013, the NSW
Government announced that a trial of the Supplementary Pest Control
Program would commence in 12 national parks. After this trial, a
report would be delivered to cabinet and further national parks on the
original list of 75 may be considered for the program.
The details
of controls and management reveal that campaign to stop amateur,
recreational hunting in national parks has been won.
The trial
program is fundamentally a professional hunting program and will be run
entirely by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) staff. The
program is back in the hands of the professionals who have always managed
pest animals in NSW.
NPWS staff may bring in professional
volunteers to help execute its professionally planned and managed
programs, and such volunteers will have to go through the same training as
NPWS staff. E.G: Undertake navigation training, species identification
training, demonstrate competency etc.
Any pest eradication
programs that NPWS staff utilise professional volunteers for will have one
of two zones within it. There were previously three, and the third to be
omitted was the ‘scary zone' that permitted amateurs to carry out
unsupervised hunting at their own discretion.
The two zones that
remain are Zone A and Zone B.
Zone A: Volunteers will be part of
the NPWS team and working shoulder to shoulder with experienced NPWS
staff.
Zone B: Experienced and trained volunteers are supervised
by NPWS staff. This will include induction and daily safety briefings.
Detailed reporting, data collection and debriefing requirements will also
apply. Site specific shooting plans with detailed maps will direct
operations, with these being approved by NPWS regional managers consistent
with regional pest strategies.
National Park will be closed to the
public when pest eradication programs are taking place as has always
occurred when NPWS have managed these programs.
A new addition to
the rules around pest animal control is that there will be no shooting
activity by NPWS at all in any national park during school
holidays.
No minors will be allowed to hunt in any national parks
despite lobbying from the Shooters and Fishers Party.
Unions of
National Parks and Wildlife Service feel that the safety concerns they
raised during the inception of the program have been adequately addressed.
The
campaign to stop amateur, recreational hunting in national parks has very
much been won! The groups working on the campaign have committed to
keeping a watch on the program and are now calling for:
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Funds dedicated to the Game Council to be given to NPWS for strategic,
integrated professional pest animal control programs, including further
research into more humane methods of killing pest animals.
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For the management and controls for pest animal programs in national parks
to be also applied to our State Forests.
In
addition to the announcement around the Supplementary Pest Control
Program, on 4 July the government also announced it had disbanded the
Game Council of NSW. This came after an independent review of the Game
Council by Steve Dunn reported the many incompetencies of the Council and
that it promoted poor governance.
Thanks to
everyone for their support to date.
There
will still be news and updates to come in the future, but this will be
less frequent.
Best
regards
Justin
McKee,
Campaign
Coordinator, National Parks Association of NSW. | 