UPDATE 12.15pm: FERAL deer are in the crosshairs of a report that encourages state government to classify them as pests with population control proving beyond recreational shooters.
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The Coalition-commissioned draft of the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) Pest Animal Report – released today – suggests game status be removed from feral deer in NSW so more landowners can contribute to stopping their spread.
The recommendation is sure to cause a stir among recreational shooters and is one of several suggestions listed in the wide-reaching review ordered by Premier Mike Baird last year as an election promise to NSW Farmers.
Leading conservation organisations and pest management groups endorsed the review.
"Until now the NSW Government has been unwilling to act decisively on the growing threats of expanding populations of feral deer," Invasive Species Council CEO Andrew Cox said.
NRC commissioner Dr John Keniry said feral deer were a particular concern in NSW, given their alarming spread in population and geography and increasing effect on farmers’ bottom lines.
“The current system relied on recreational shooters to control the numbers – which clearly hasn’t happened,” Dr Keniry said.
“Making them pests would help stop them encroaching on public and private land.”
Deer impact farmers by competing with stock for pasture, fouling waterholes, eroding soil, spreading weeds and transmitting pests and diseases.
CSIRO has estimated feral deer numbers at more than 200,000 across the eastern states and South Australia, and, in its 2014 report, Australia’s Biosecurity Future, said increased numbers could ramp up the risk of foot and mouth and bluetongue outbreaks.
But the Shooters and Fishers Party last year argued deer were low on the government’s rankings for agricultural, biosecurity, and environmental threats, and said the current classification of deer as a game animal allowed adequate control options for rural producers.
The draft NRC report disagrees.
“You are seeing more and more of these animals popping up in areas they have never been before,” Dr Keniry said.
“And farmers are reporting quite a lot of damage.”
Among the other species-specific recommendations in the draft Shared Problems, Shared Solutions report is a call for all domestic cats to be desexed within four months of age, or registered as a breeding animal that would be subject to an annual fee.
“NSW is basically just playing catch-up with other states on this,” Dr Keniry said. “These measures are not uncommon in other jurisdictions.”
The report also wants the mooted release of a carp herpes virus to be fast-tracked.
Scientists announced last year they were working on a strain of herpes that could eradicate the maligned European Carp from inland waterways with no effect on native plants and animals.
Carp have an estimated impact of $22 million in the Murray-Darling basin alone and account for up to 80 per cent of fish in that waterway.
Balance is needed in feral horse management, between biodiversity and heritage outcomes, the report said.
The draft report follows months of consultation with landholders, industry, and environment, and was guided by 160 submissions on ideas to tackle the state’s annual $170 million pest-animal problem.
Broad-brush ideas include an increased responsibility on government and the community to work together, with Local Land Services recommended to be given resources to establish a network of regional pest coordinators.
Dr Keniry said the money could come from an additional ratepayer levy and matched government funding.
The NRC is inviting public feedback on the draft report before it finalises its recommendations to government by June 30.
The Commission will also host six public meetings across NSW in May, to provide local communities and stakeholders further opportunity to have input.
