The trapping and rehoming of feral horses in the Kosciuszko National Park has resumed after the Land and Environment Court dismissed a bid to stop the practice.
The Snowy Mountains Brumby Sustainability and Management Group (SMBSMG) tried to stop brumbies from being trapped and removed from three sensitive areas of the park, but the court upheld a 2008 horse management plan.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Southern Ranges director, Mick Pettitt, said the service was luring brumbies to yards with salt and molasses since May and the first horses were removed this week.
"We actually removed 12 horses yesterday," he said.
"We have got, at this stage, room for 155 horses for rehomers who have put their hand up to take that number of horses.
"One of the things that came out of the court case is more interest for rehoming of horses, so we're hopeful that we'll be able to increase that number from 155 upwards."
NPWS said it did not have a target for the number of horses it planned to remove from the park.
"What we know is in those three sensitive areas there are estimated to be about 4,000 horses," Mr Pettitt said.
"One of those areas, which is the Nungar Plains, there weren't horses before — they've moved in since 2008.
"So we'll remove horses from the Nungar Plains and we'll reduce the horse numbers in Kiandra and Cooleman Plains."
Pro-brumby group will lobby for changes
President of SMBSMG Alan Lanyon said, with no avenues to appeal last week's court decision, he would instead lobby the State Government for a new Horse Management Plan or for changes to the existing one.
The Deputy Premier John Barilaro has backed those calls and said he has again written to the Environment Minister Matt Kean urging him to authorise a recount of feral horses in the national park.
"We went through the worst fires last summer and lost a lot of wildlife and somehow the anti-brumby groups believe the brumbies survived it," Mr Barilaro said.
"Let's have a recount, reset the numbers and then we'll have a look at the population for brumbies."
Survey data collected in 2019 found the brumby population was up from about 5,000 in 2014 to 20,000.
"The survey is one of the most robust, scientifically and statistically sound approaches to counting population estimates within the park and those figures have been peer reviewed and stand as a good estimate of the population," Mr Pettitt said.
"We've had staff out prior, during and post fires and from various means of observation, by ground or by air, we recognise there are still a lot of horses in the area."
