Hello Birding-Aus people,
The question of so called "conservation hunting" has been well addressed by the
Invasive Species Council of Australia.
A paper by Dr Carol Booth of the Invasive Species Council researches the matter
well.
See:http://www.invasives.org.au/documents/file/reports/Critique_IsHuntingConservation.pdf
We taxpayers through the NSW Government subsidise the Shooters via the NSW Game
Council to the tune of around
$1.8million per year.For this the shooters have killed around 6500 feral
animals per year.This works out at $287 per killed animal.
Bunnies account for almost half of the feral animals killed in NSW State
Forests. In addition we now have more feral deer, goats and
pigs in National Parks and other conservation lands as a consequence of the
shooters illegally translocating animals.
The NSW Government has now done a deal with the Shooters to extend their
"conservation hunting" into NSW National Parks.
A reading of the Shooters website indicates that they consider all NSW National
Parks other than those very close to Sydney
to be available for their hunting even though the Government denies this. The
Government meanwhile is busy sacking
public servants, including people who look after our National Parks. This will
give the Shooters a free hand to do whatever
they like in our National Parks. The Shooters website indicates that they
favour more frequent fires in National Parks,
presumably to make hunting easier. The NSW Game Council already has a mandate
to manage Californian Quail,
Pheasant, Chukhar Partridge and Peafowl. It is most possible that in addition
to Mynahs and Starlings we will see a new suit
of ferals in our environment.
The discussion on the topic of Shooters in National Parks has recently focused
on the possibility of normal people doing
normal things in National Parks being shot. This is, of course, a real
possibility. However I suggest that the environmental
damage done by the shooters taking over land set aside for conservation
purposes and altering it to suit their needs will
be a much more serious problem for conservationists, including birders, in the
long term.
A meeting to protest against the deal done between the NSW Government and the
Shooters will be held outside Environment
Minister Robyn Parkers office at 64 Church Street Maitland NSW next Tuesday
July 24 at 1100.
Cheers,
Jim Smart
East Maitland NSW
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