Ok, perhaps another few posts... :D After all I did promise to keep you all abreast of what is happening! Thank you to Leisa Caldwell for this awesome piece of writing! Kudos! The Snowy Brumby Conspiracy, Author Leisa Caldwell. 8 October 2014 at 20:48 SNOWY MOUNTAINS HORSE RIDERS ASSOCIATION (SMHRA) Established 1985 Keeping Our Heritage Alive… The Snowy Mountains Brumbies Conspiracy (SMHRA Vision Statement) In the tradition of the Man from Snowy River our vision is to hold on to the values of our heritage… our mountain horsemanship, our bush skills and bush lore, our history and our memories. A unique Australian way of life, being descendants of the original Snowy River Riders, our aim is to be sincerely recognized by governments and society as responsible and legitimate land users in our traditional areas. It was over 120 years ago that Banjo Paterson found the inspiration for his legendary poem “The Man from Snowy River “ and founded the legacy of the Snowy Mountains Brumbies. Beginning in the 1840s, domestic horses were set loose to run free. Since then they have added to the mystical landscape where “the Snowy River riders on the mountains make their home.” There are many legends and tales of where the original brumbies came from including the name itself. It still ignites our passions and inspires many to uncover the mysteries of our own local history, just as it did when the Banjo wrote his poem. Here in the Snowy Mountains the Brumbies are not just an integral part of the high country natural environment; they reflect our history, our ancestors and our folklore… a heritage that gives us a sense of belonging as well as our quintessentially Australian identity that is celebrated by most. When over 120 years of mountain grazing ended, the mountain people’s world changed dramatically. The brumbies became sacred as they were the last link to the heritage that they treasured. The brumbies are renowned for their hardiness and their sure footedness. Some fools may say they are worthless and cannot be tamed but we here in the Snowy know that with good husbandry they can make excellent riding horses, pack horses, children’s ponies, pets and companions. For nearly 10,000 years as the human species’ evolved, horses were in our lives. Horses were the most powerful ally of all humankind as they helped us spread to all continents of the globe with our language and culture and then most importantly partnering us in the farming revolution a major threshold of human history. We are now seeing in this century for the very first time ever in human history, that horses will not be utilized as a necessity. They are no longer needed for the mainstay of transport, fieldwork, or war. This partnership is possibly the most vital, most faithful and most taken for granted relationship ever in human history. The horse has been by our side as it carried us into war and died for us over and over for thousands of years. From Alexander the Great to Australia’s own Light Horsemen and our modern day police, there is a profound bond, a trust and a partnership forged by man with these proud creatures. If we think about it long enough, we realize there is no other species on earth that has been and still is inter-connected with human-beings in the way horses are. After such a history we think they have earned the right to be recognized and treated differently from other exotic animals. It is treachery that they are classified alongside feral pigs, deer and rabbits. They have earned their place to run wild through-out the world. We believe it is vitally important to maintain sustainable brumby populations in the Snowy Mountains, as the mountains have long been their home. They have earned the right to run free to carry on their now unique genetics found nowhere else in the world and that domestic horses can not hold. At the same time we also concede that the brumbies can at times and especially after several good seasons, need careful management of numbers in some areas. SMHRA have always agreed that the brumbies should be kept out of the true alpine areas above the tree line, and areas that they are historically not normally found. The local riders recently offered again to remove those brumbies free of charge, safely, humanely and respectfully, but are not permitted to do so. In the tradition of the Man from Snowy River we continue to offer to manage the brumbies in our traditional way, as our families had done for more than 140 years … and for free. Our community has been maintaining the numbers by roping or trapping them since the mid 19th century. The 1981 Draft Plan of Management for Kosciusko National Park stated: Proposed management practices - Wild Horses: This plan of management recognizes that wild horses are feral and that quantitative data on their effect on the Park environment are negligible. The current licensing system, which authorizes particular persons to catch wild horses, will be reviewed as a control measure. Horse-riding: It is proposed that horse-riding be permitted throughout the park including wilderness areas except for the Kosciuszko Management Unit... Brumby running: will be subject to the provisions above and the other provisions of the plan. A specific license from the Service will be required. A year later in 1982 without ANY public consultation whatsoever, the plan was changed and then gazetted, and the Snowy Mountain people had been devastatingly abolished overnight from riding (and hence managing brumbies) in these areas where our ancestors were born, lived, worked and died. This contradicted everything that was in the publicly exhibited plan regarding riding and the brumbies, and the community was in shock. Our heritage had been hijacked and the Snowy River Riders were now deemed illegal in their own country. At that same time, NPWS told us that the brumbies are “insignificant in Kosciuszko National Park and they do not warrant any management”. Recently, NPWS publicly acknowledged that the local riders had indeed been managing the brumbies up until their prohibition from wilderness. The brumbies had been running wild in the same areas along with cattle, mining and later the Snowy Scheme for over 140 years. However, the powers that be still considered that the environment was natural and pristine enough to be declared a National Park and later on declared “wilderness areas”. It is spurious to suggest that the brumbies are having any permanent or serious environmental impacts on catchments when compared to landslides, bushfires and floods. If there is any impacts from horses they are certainly imperceptible in comparison to pigs, dogs, bushfire and floods or the man made infrastructures, fire trails or roads along with its many users. There has not been any independent formal or peer reviewed scientific studies conclusively stating that brumbies in the Snowy are the cause of damage to wilderness areas to warrant the brumbies (or riders) being targeted over any other animal or park development or activity. These manufactured claims of the extremist green groups use the “precautionary principle” to give credence to their greed and resentment of our heritage. A prejudice academic on a two-day four-wheel-drive expedition to “observe” an area of fenced plots that are designed specifically to funnel animals to concentrate in a small waterway and hence the intentional creation of adverse impacts to photograph for their misinformation should not be considered conclusive scientific evidence. This is propaganda not good land management. These bureaucratic reports should not be weighted any more credible than several generations of personal and intimate experience and eye witness accounts of the lifecycle of the mountains. There is ample evidence that proclaim that grazing by horses is not only very different to that of cattle but can also be beneficial to the natural ecosystems. Wild horses are being released into the wild in many areas to rehabilitate and regenerate to help the biodiversity to again flourish in the United Kingdom including Wales, Scotland and the south coast of England. In Italy, the Foce Isonzo Natural Reserve has used horses since 1991 to keep the parks environmental balance. Since the horses arrived the variety and health of the reserves plants and animals, in particular its birds, has flourished. Similar programs are underway in France and Asia with the principal objectives being habitat protection and restoration. A conservation group has recently arranged for horses to be re-introduced to the Campanarios de Azaba Biological Reserve in western Spain to protect its biodiversity and replenish natural spaces. United States, Wildlife Ecologist, Craig Downer said recently of our Snowy Mountain brumbies “they are being targeted in a very prejudiced manner. These are magnificent animals who contribute so much that is positive to the ecosystem and to the life of the community. Wild horses can be a very big positive in restoring soils and in seeding many diverse plant species. (Particularly after fire) They can adapt. It is not all black and white as the narrowly focused conservationists maintain.” Myles Dunphy who was considered doyen and father of the wilderness movement who formed the National Parks & Primitive Areas council and lobbied for decades for wilderness declarations in Kosciusko said... “All through these wild and cold highlands wild horses roam free in innumerable mobs, matching their horse-sense against their deadly enemies...Surely posterity would care to view their running free in land which had been theirs so long. The ‘Man from Snowy River’ will never die, why then the horses?” Dunphys admiration of the brumbies is well recorded. Dunphy was described by Paddy Pallin AM as an Extraordinary man who did more for the cause of conservation than any other individual in Australia. We wonder what Myles would think today of his modern day followers who include the extremely prejudice groups: The National Parks Association (NPA), Colong Foundation for Wilderness, The Total Environment Centre & The Wilderness Society. These city centric conservationists who are well represented on NPWS advisory committees and councils are strongly lobbying for complete extermination of our brumbies by shooting. In October 2000, in the height of spring foaling season, NPWS secretly carried out the aerial shooting massacre of more than 600 brumbies at the Guy Fawkes River National Park. Several horses were found days later by a local horseman. They were seriously wounded but still alive including some wounded mares aborting nearly full term foals and some horses were found with up to twenty five bullet wounds. We wonder how many new born foals were left to die slowly standing over their slaughtered mother. Public outrage followed. Twelve charges were brought by the RSPCA against the NPWS for the inhumane slaughter. It has been stated by some Guy Fawkes River local people that there were actually less than 300 horses shot, but the number of dead horses documented was intentionally doubled to legally justify the vast amount of ammunition used by the shooters. This does not indicate a “humane cull”. Eventually after plea bargaining, the RSPCA conveniently only prosecuted the NSW National Parks for aggravated cruelty to one horse, which did not die immediately. “Excessive roundups (or Culling) actually cause an increase in these equids rate of reproduction – a phenomenon called compensatory reproduction that has to do with the disruption of their social structure and increased breeding by younger, immature horses, unguided by the more mature ones as well as desperation to survive both as individuals and as species.” (Downer 2011) It has been said that in prime environmental conditions that populations of brumbies can increase by up to 20% per year from compensatory reproduction. However: “Populations do not sustain these levels of growth indefinitely. Population growth slows, stops or becomes negative when horses are removed from the population by people (Garrot & Taylor 1990)”. The intense bushfires of 2003 reduced populations by approx 54% in Kosci (Dawson 2009). Prior to the bushfires (Dawson and Hone 2009) observed that the populations were either stable or only increasing at a rate of up to 9% per year. We believe that slow and steady traditional methods of capture and management was clearly demonstrated for more than a century to work and will again have negligible impacts and gain a stable and sustainable population. Horses evolved as prey animals with a fight or flight instinct away from predators. They are born cowards but they can learn to be brave, particularly with human partners. Their only enemies in the mountains are drought, snow, bushfire and man. Horses see helicopters (even without guns) as predators. They see them as a giant eagle with huge talons seizing a mouse. A prime example of this was on ANZAC day with our riders mounted on their horses at the cenotaph during the service. When three helicopters flew over, some of the less experienced horses took fright although the more experienced horses stood their ground. This demonstrates that there is no such thing as low stressed and passive use of helicopters for mustering (or counting) which is particularly terrifying for wild horses, but this is being recommended by NPWS and their contractors. SMHRA believes that it is absolutely impossible to shoot horses humanely from helicopters or from the ground (after the first shot) into the wild. Euthanasia by shooting should only be considered by expert horse people or vets in controlled areas, and never as a management tool. So far, the ban on aerial culling in NSW still holds. BUT this is only at the Minister’s direction and is not legislation. It is still possible that the NSW Govt could change its mind and start killing at any time. Shooting horses and possibly the use of cyanide is strongly being pursued by the extremists as well as National Parks. NPWS tell us that the RSPCA have also stated that aerial shooting may again be considered. In 2006, the NSW Liberal and National parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Snowy Mountains Horse Riders Assoc, the Snowy Mountains Bush Users Group and the Australian Horse Alliance, stating that when they came to government they will: “Ensure that brumbies are recognized as part of the cultural heritage of NSW and through statutory instruments and plans of management. Shooting will not be permitted as a management tool.” Ex-Premier Barry O’Farrell and Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner have given an undertaking that they will honour the MOU but the local NPWS now tell us that shooting is back on the table! SMHRA believe that the issue of wild horse management goes hand in hand with the history and culture of the mountain horsemen. As horse lovers with several decades of wild horse experience we believe that we must continue to play a significant role in their management using our traditional and humane methods which should be a win win for all. SMHRA will never condone any shooting or poisoning or the use of helicopters to manage brumbies. SMHRA will always endeavour to re-home brumbies rather that sending them to slaughter yards. In the past 50 years, the people of the Snowy had their cattle & livelihood taken from the mountains, their towns flooded and much of their history lost, and then the Snowy River Riders were prohibited from even riding in their beloved mountains as their fathers and grandfathers did. Once the brumbies are gone there will be little if anything left to demonstrate that our Snowy Mountain history since white settlement ever existed. Our heritage seems to be important enough and is nationally recognized and celebrated when it is deemed suitable to exploit for entertainment purposes such as the Opening of the Sydney Olympics and Snowy River Spectaculars, Festivals and the several films. Our Australian $10 note even wears the badge of honour. We want to pass on the skills, knowledge and love of our heritage and the mountains to our children and grandchildren, just as our ancestors did. We are the last people on earth to want to harm our beloved mountains or our brumbies and we take offence at the allegations. Similar to our indigenous friends, we too, have a profound and unique culture and history in the mountains and it also deserves preservation as well as celebration and our brumbies are very much a part of that heritage. Whilst we acknowledge that we do not have 40,000 years of important history, we can still nurture the proud young heritage that we can call ours and not at the expense of the other. It may be only 200 years but it is all we have - and it is important to us. It lies beyond the Western Pines, Towards the sinking sun, And not a survey mark defines The bounds of Brumbys Run. A B Paterson Author of article Leisa Caldwell
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 10:05:21 +0000
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