NRC pest response: Deer hunting protections suspended in nine councils

Many farmers will wonder why state government has gone against the advice of the Natural Resource Commission, and NSW Farmers, and left deer to, by and large, be protected by the Game Animal Act. 

Government’s response to the commission’s pest animal review will empower committees of industry, recreational, and environmental stakeholders across the 11 Local Land Services regions to tailor individual plans addressing the feral problems affecting them. 

How these plans relate to wild deer – which, in some regions, are causing livestock producers to significantly cut stocking rates – will be guided by a Wild Deer Management strategy to be developed by 2018.

But it is unclear at this stage how stakeholders will reach a regional consensus on what constitutes a pest animal threat, what action will be taken, and how conflict between competing interests will be resolved.

The recreational hunting lobby, for example, has fought hard against removing deer from the NSW game register, asserting that licensed hunters, if allowed to shoot in more areas of the state including National Parks, are best placed to control deer numbers. 

Critics of the hunting lobby accuse licensed shooters of wanting to protect deer as a hobby resource. Government, in turn, has been accused of bowing to this pressure. 

The Invasive Species Council says recreational hunting alone is not working in stopping deer, and that the population spread has increased more than 60 per cent since 2009. 

Landholders - particularly in the South - argue current protections afforded to deer greatly hinder control efforts, including hunting seasons, licensing requirements, restriction on the use of baits, shooting by spotlight, and aerial shooting, and the lack of an avenue to enforce a regional responsibility on all land managers. 

In the meantime, nine local councils infested with deer will have hunting protections suspended, freeing up landholders in Port Macquarie-Hastings, Tenterfield, Glenn Innes, Upper Hunter, Liverpool Plains, Bega Valley, Snowy Valleys, Snowy-Monaro, and Wollongong to treat deer as a pest animal. 

These councils are spread across seven LLS regions. 

Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair said declaring deer a statewide pest wouldn’t necessarily see it eradicated. 

“Whether something is declared a pest or not hasn’t determined its success as being controlled in the past,” he said. “Just looks at wild pigs.”

“In particular parts in the state there has certainly been an increase in deer, so we’re initiating localised approaches in those nine LGA areas, and switching off the (Game Act) settings.”

STOPPING pests can be a different proposal from one paddock to the next – let alone from Bega to Broken Hill. It is with this thinking in mind that farmers’ fight against ferals in NSW will change, with each of the 11 Local Lands Service (LLS) regions to map out plans for their specific problems.  

Nine months since the Natural Resources Commission made 33 recommendations on feral animal management, and two years since promising NSW Farmers a review, state government has responded with wholescale reform: a legislative and operational upheaval that aims to share pest and biosecurity responsibility between government, land managers, and the broader community. 

The reforms unveiled this week also saw government commit to finalising the NSW Wild Dog Management Strategy by the end of 2017, ready for 2018. 

Feral Cats also got some attention. Government will invest in an online pet registry, offer councils grants to target microchipping and de-sexing, and prevent breeders from selling cats without microchips to pet stores. 

Central to the new rules will be regional pest plans drawn up by stakeholder committees in each of the 11 LLS regions – not dissimilar to regional weed management plans. Government said this is so pest funding and resourcing can be allocated accordingly depending on the threats presented. 

A new state Pest Animal Management Committee will also be established this year, as recommended, to replace the Pest Animal Council. LLS staff and DPI experts will provide advice to, but will not rule, stakeholders on the 11 LLS regional committees, which could feature representatives from National Parks, State Forests, industry, relevant private landholder representatives, conservation and indigenous interests.

Director of Invasive Plants and Animals at DPI Biosecurity, Dr Andrew Sanger, said the reforms would empower landholders to attack local issues. Dr Sanger said the NRC response was being crafted at the same time as, and would interact with, aspects of the upcoming Biosecurity Act regulations – due to be released soon. 

Details of the regulations may be scarce, but government said there would no longer be a need to specifically declare particular pest animal species in legislation, or to rely on and continually amend lists of species in legislation. “The underlying philosophy of (the) legislation is an outcome-focused biosecurity duty, with legal obligations that place an onus on people with pests on their land to do what is reasonably practical,” Dr Sanger said. 

Under the pest reforms, monitoring, surveillance and data collection will be boosted, as will research collaboration with the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions. 

Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair said he would also consider using excess pest levy rates to fund other initiatives – but only if it didn’t take away from immediate threats.