Ministers: List feral deer as a pest animal now | Feral deer are a pest. So list them as one.

Ministers: List feral deer as a pest animal now

Feral deer destroy shrubs, ringbark trees, trample rainforests, wallow in wetlands, wreck orchards and vineyards, and they’re a hazard on our roads.

Ask your ministers to protect wildlife, parks, local businesses and communities by urgently listing deer as a pest animal and releasing an effective, well-resourced deer control plan.

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Dear Ministers Symes and D’Ambrosio,

I am writing to you in your roles as key natural resource Ministers in the Victorian Government. I’m concerned that Victoria’s Draft Deer Management Strategy (2018) fell far short of addressing the considerable problems feral deer bring to peri-urban and regional communities, to our great national parks, our wetlands, catchments and the natural environment generally.

While many native species are in decline across the state, deer are rapidly increasing their numbers. They far exceed the capacity for control by recreational hunters. Research into the native habitats of the four main species of deer in Victoria indicates that they can continue to extend their range, potentially occupying almost every habitat in the nation.

Victoria’s biodiversity is at risk. Deer are seriously impacting Victoria’s finest national parks and other natural areas, from the coast to the Grampians, from rainforest gullies to the high country.

It is now over a year since the government received feedback from the Victorian community to its Draft Deer Management Strategy.

The government must urgently release an effective, well-resourced final strategy to control this destructive animal. And all deer must be listed as pest species – no other mainland state still gives protection to this highly destructive feral animal.

Feral deer eat almost every native plant in Victoria, and are currently swallowing over one million tonnes of our native plants in a year. Deer destroy shrubs, wallow in wetlands and ringbark trees.

Deer also wreck orchards and vineyards, and invade farms and private residences.  And critically, they’re a growing hazard on our roads. And now the growth of illegal hunting due to the easy availability of deer has become a safety concern in many rural and semi-rural areas.

Decades of volunteer and government-funded revegetation programs across Victoria have already been damaged or are now threatened by deer.

Victoria urgently needs an integrated, large-scale, adequately-resourced program that includes:

Making appropriate legislative and regulatory changes to make deer a pest species:
• Amend both the Wildlife Act (1975) and the Catchment and Land Protection Act (1994) to recognise all deer as pest species. This would align these Acts with Victoria’s National Parks Act (1975) and Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1998), the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999), and Victoria’s biodiversity strategy: Protecting Victoria’s Environment – Biodiversity 2037.

Planning for success:
• Establish a state-wide zoning system for deer control that prioritises management for, at least, national parks and other protected areas, and threatened species and communities currently identified in legislation. Remove the draft’s ‘resource zone’, as harmful invasive species should not be protected as a resource. 
• Allocate adequate, recurrent funding for pest control operations across public and private lands, and give assistance to private landholders where necessary. 
• Set evidence-based targets for effective control of deer, including targets that reduce farm invasions and increase road safety.

Building effectiveness through knowledge:
• Support research into additional control methods, including the development of genetic and/or biological controls, baiting options, trapping and other remote area control possibilities.

Victoria’s deer hunting experience is not remotely threatened, as complete eradication is scarcely feasible.

I urge you to complete, and release, a well-resourced, effective strategy to control feral deer in Victoria.

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