After reading the article in the paper regarding the debate on brumbies in the Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), I would like to point out a few home truths.
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I have been riding KNP for 40 years, 20 of those years I owned a property that bordered the national park and the Snowy River so I know first-hand what shape the bush has taken over the last 40 years.
Might I add the 100 years prior to me being there they ran cattle all over the high country and there is no evidence of this grazing.
Ms Thompson states she was there in the ‘80s and again in 2013 and expresses her concern at the change that has taken place in the high country.
Can I point out that there were limited horses left after the major drought in the early ‘80s, which saw horses, kangaroos, and a lot of other wildlife perish.
Once the wildlife got over that drought they were then hit with massive wildfires throughout the region, these burnt right through to Victoria.
Since the ‘80s there have been numerous droughts and more wildfires go through the region, and yes I can understand where Ms Thompson is coming from that the bush has changed, but only due to drought and fires.
She states there were approximately 7600 brumbies in 2009 - the NPWS says there are still 7600 brumbies in 2014, keeping in mind that these horses are running over thousands of square kilometres.
KNP has stated it trapped over 600 horses last year and has trapped over 2000 horses since the trapping started, not 250 as stated by Ms Thompson.
The 21.65 per cent increase rate is a lot of nonsense - it is below 10 per cent and then take out the natural attrition.
After 40 years of being in the bush there are actually fewer brumbies there now than there were 15 years ago.
The shooting of brumbies out of helicopters also has been done over the last 40 years and every time they have done it, it has been a total disaster with horses being left to die wounded, foals wandering the bush starving to death as their mothers have been shot.
I thought Parks would have learned their lesson in their last two or three attempts at this.
Regarding water quality, I have not found a stream in my 40 years up until six weeks ago that you could not get a clean drink out of.
Maybe Ms Thompson should work out the difference between a pig wallow and a flowing stream as the pig population in the high country has absolutely exploded in the last 10 years and these are the animals we should be talking about, not the brumbies.
I am hoping that the brumbies are maintained along with our heritage.
Neil Duncan
Bega
