Australian Brumby Alliance Inc. Brumby Bridges The quarterly newsletter of the ABA MARCH 2018 ISSUE 18-1 ABA Inc. Charity/ABN No: 9-784718191 INSIDE THIS ISSUE….. 2…..President’s Chat 3 ….Impacts of Brumbies on the Bogong High Plains 5.… Parks Victoria Plan to 2020 6…..Member News 8…..Deer versus Horse Hoof? 9….. Australian Brumby Challenge 9….. The Cultural Meaning of Wild Horses 10...Editor’s Tail Will political decisions based The ABA The Australian Brumby Alliance Inc. (ABA) was on flawed science make these established in 2008 to help facilitate the efforts of like-minded wild horse interest groups throughout the last of the Bogong High Australia. We do this by sharing information and Plains Brumbies? expertise as well as providing a collective voice with regard to the humane management, welfare, preservation and promotion of what we consider to be a National Treasure - The Australian Brumby. Page | 1 Brumby Bridges Issue 18-1 Australian Brumby Alliance Inc. ABA News President’s Chat I begin, and end, this ‘chat’ by expressing grave doubts and deep frustration regarding the consultative process that The campaign to tell Lily & Co, Don’t destroy our Brumby Parks Victoria (PV) has conducted over the past 14 Heritage, legislate to protect it needs your support now to months. tell Parks Victoria and their Minister that their horse plan must: First PV rushed through 6 key stakeholders meeting with consultants who provided a report that all stakeholders • Acknowledge the cultural and social values our said was meaningless and resulted in 18 hours of iconic Brumbies; discussion being lost. • Retain sustainable Brumby populations in their historic homelands; Then PV timed the draft plan release as the Christmas • Replace the flawed, misleading impact study season began and to conclude when the school holidays with robust, peer reviewed studies that will not ended. waste public money; PV kept the public in the dark by releasing a scant interim • Lower the numbers trapped to within rehoming Bogong High Plains (BHP) impact report with the draft capabilities otherwise over 90% of trapped plan, leaving feedback for the first 3 weeks to be based on Brumbies will be shot at the trap site; information that PV later replaced by a ‘final’ version • Never ground shoot trap shy BHP Brumbies – during the feedback period. we don’t want them to die in agony; The ultimate grievance was having a final BHP Wild Horse • Accept this plan cannot reduce impacts; it is impact report released with no chance to question the possible there are other causes, such as the serious, damming new claims never raised during the 320-426 Sambar deer to ONE Brumby across year’s review process, and claims that are biased, the Victorian Alps. misleading and fail the simplest scrutiny (more page 3). Visit the Victorian Brumby Association Website for contact Both the Hon Lily D’Ambrosio, minister responsible for PV, details and options, then call Parks Victoria and Lily and PV itself seem intent on destroying Victoria’s Brumby D’Ambrosio and leave a firm, polite message. living social history, first with BHP Brumbies and decimating half of remaining Alpine Brumby populations. It is vital that we all join in the chorus to have Australia’s living Brumby heritage protected in sustainable number That the Minister and PV continue to ignore the major now. Until we have legislation to protect heritage Brumby flaws in the plan’s BHP impact study, despite scientific populations, we can never reply on Parks or their Ministers evidence being presented, shows how prepared they are to retain viable Wild Horse populations. to ignore real evidenced-based science when it fails to portray Brumbies as Alpine villains. (more page 5) Jill Pickering Page | 2 Brumby Bridges Issue 18-1 Australian Brumby Alliance Inc. did not evolve in Australia. Any feral horse impact is Impacts of Feral Horses on the therefore considered damage. Bogong High Plains in reality But what is the true impact on native plants and animals? Parks Victoria is sure that their “Assessing the Impacts of Is it positive or negative? It would be a shame to remove Feral Horses on the Bogong High Plains, Victoria - Final all feral horses and find that this causes the decline or report – January 2018” provides evidence-based proof that extinction of some native plant or animal. Grazing animals Brumbies are at “critical” levels in the Victorian Alps. can have beneficial impact on native plants and animals However, Dr David Berman, Research Fellow (Wildlife (Schultz et al. 2011) and protect endangered plants Ecology) at the University of Southern Queensland, (Gilfedder & Kirkpatrick 1994). Plants and animals provides a very different view of this report in his currently present in the Alps have survived over 100 years submission to Parks Victoria. The extracts below, from Dr of heavy summer grazing by introduced, hard hooved Berman’s submission provide new animals. insights into the reasons that Park It would be a shame to remove all authorities and others use to convinced themselves there is no place for feral horses and find that this By surveying sites Brumbies in national parks. where you think causes the decline or extinction of horses are, and not Dr Berman first reaction to this report some native plant or animal. looking where you supports what we have said for years, think horses are “It appears the whole project has been not, you are biasing designed in a hurry (with poor the results and experimental design) to ensure the preconceived “correct” simply confirming that horses are where you thought they result is achieved. This is not science, this is propaganda!” were. Where horses are they create pads (tracks), hoof And, “.. this document will promote (to the uninformed) prints and defecate, therefore, you will find pads, hoof the unsubstantiated belief that feral horses cause damage prints and dung where horses are. Furthermore, the no matter what their density. “ report states “Priority sites were visited”. Were they? What determined the priority? Is this a biased selection of The relative activity of feral horses and other potential sites? causes of impact such as deer or domestic horses or people need to be determined. There is no way of telling There is little obvious evidence of horse hoof prints in the how much of the trampling/ pugging impact is caused by photos of mud and bare ground. In fact, the disturbance is feral horses and how extensive the impact is from the data more consistent with cloven hooves of deer rather than reported. horse hooves. Literature cited appears to have been selected to support The report states “Damage to alpine ecosystems by feral the case that horses cause damage while ignoring other horses has been well-demonstrated in the past”. Dr documents or parts of cited documents that do not Berman asked where and by whom? Adding “There has support the preconceived belief. been one detailed Masters Study (Dyring 1990) and some exclosure work (Theile & Prober 1999; Williams et al. Damage and impact are assumed wrongly to be the same 2014), neither of these demonstrate damage. They in this report and is probably because those involved have demonstrate impact. In fact, there are severe a strong belief that horses should not be in National Parks experimental design flaws in all the studies I have read because they are introduced, hard hooved animals that making results inconclusive”. Page | 3 Brumby Bridges Issue 18-1 Australian Brumby Alliance Inc. Dyring 1990 identified 5.8 km of horse tracks per square there were 900 cattle, 30,000 sheep and horses in their km. That means if the tracks are 30 cm wide the area in 1 thousands, this “potential” would have occurred very square km (1 million metres squared) with impact is 1740 often - if there is indeed such potential. square metres or 0.174% of the area – 99.826% of the The report states “Tracks were well-formed in grassland area is not subjected to the impact of horses walking and open heathland areas regularly used”, but how much along tracks. of the area is influenced by these tracks? Is this a negative or a positive for native plants and animals? Presumably some small native animals would find these tracks useful Data in the report are not robust. They are temporal but there is confusion over Deer or Horse? Can you be so sure? selection of sites that are Below is a photo of a deer hoof print (left) and what PV claim is a horse hoof print (right). revisited and no clear See Hoof Prints for more photos. indication of how representative of the total area of interest the sites are. So, you cannot say much about how horse activity has been changing in geographical extent or severity across the Bogong High Plains. The report talks of damage to stream banks but fails to state what proportion of the banks have this impact? How much soil has been lost? for moving around. Native animals also make tracks like Is this faster than natural erosion? How much faster than these. natural erosion rates? What is the negative impact on If even a small number of horses can cause cumulative native plants and animals? The impact may in fact be damage how come 14 bogs in the southern Bogong High positive with increases in diversity of plant species Plains, where the highest number of horses are, were (Williams et al. 2014). deemed to be in the same state. Two sites had improved The report states “The preference shown by feral horses even with horses being present at one of them, and for wet areas….” but fails to explain why the authors say another site with horses being present remained in the this.