On Fallow Deer Management Plan

Media release – Jo Palmer, Minister for Primary Industries and Water, 29 September 2022

Implementation Strategy for Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan released

The Tasmanian Government is delivering on its commitment to modernise the management of the fallow deer population with the release of the Implementation Strategy for the Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan.

Underpinning the Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan that was released earlier this year, the Implementation Strategy sets out clear objectives to manage the agricultural, commercial, environmental and public safety impacts associated with deer populations in Tasmania.

The Management Plan and Implementation Strategy recognise the balance between supporting recreational hunting, while giving land holders the flexibility to manage deer on their land and minimise the impact of deer in the state.

Extensive stakeholder engagement was undertaken with key associations and peak bodies to develop the Management Plan and Implementation Strategy, ensuring our Government has a balanced and supported framework.

I thank all those groups who have provided feedback throughout this process. It is through this collaborative approach that we are setting this project up for success.

While delivery of the Implementation Strategy will be overseen by NRE Tas there are a range of actions or initiatives where industry groups will play a critical role and I thank the various industry associations and peak bodies in advance for their input and involvement in delivery of key actions.

For farmers this includes identifying strategies and initiatives to support the deer farming industry, property-based game management plans and supporting industry regulation for commercial deer farming.

For hunters this includes opportunities to increase the involvement of recreational hunters in control programs on public land, along with the establishment of partnership and project agreements with key stakeholder groups.

Our Government committed $2 million over four years in the last Budget to implement the Management Plan.

In addition to this, the Australian Government has provided $400,000 to support a project to eradicate deer from the Walls of Jerusalem National Park, along with a further $450 000 over three years to assist with the control of peri-urban deer.

Information on the Management Plan and Implementation Strategy is available on the NRE Tas website: https://nre.tas.gov.au/agriculture/game-services-tasmania/wild-fallow-deer-management-plan.

Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 29 September 2022

Rockliff Government must not open TWWHA and National Parks to recreational deer hunters.

The Rockliff Government’s ‘Implementation Plan for the Management of Fallow Deer’, released today, confirms yet again that hunters and shooters are more important to the government than the protection of our precious wild places.

“Stubbornly refusing to remove the protected status of feral deer is bad enough, but now to add insult to injury by actively planning a pilot project to open National Parks and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) to recreational shooters is beyond the pale,” said Christine Milne, Bob Brown Foundation Patron and Invasive Species Council Ambassador.

“We welcome the goal of eradication of feral deer in the TWWHA and our National Parks, including the option of aerial shooting by professional shooters under the direction of the Parks and Wildlife Service. But we reject absolutely the government inviting recreational hunters and shooters into the parks. This is not an eradication plan. Hunters don’t eradicate, they selectively shoot to maintain ‘a quality herd’ of feral animals for the future.

This is yet another sop to the deer hunters and shooters of Tasmania at the expense of proper parks management. The government has been warned for decades that feral deer are spreading well beyond the Midlands into the Douglas Apsley and Freycinet National Parks and our world-renowned  TWWHA, but it has done nothing. Instead, it has encouraged it as part of the ‘Tasmanian way of life.’ Tasmania needs a well-funded biosecurity strategy to address alien invasive species, and feral deer in particular, not a poorly funded and badly designed plan designed to fail,” concluded Christine Milne.

https://nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Management Implementation Strategy.pdf

Media release – Wilderness Society (Tasmania) & Tasmanian National Parks Association, 3 October 2022

Tas Govt’s failure to declare deer feral species is poor biosecurity policy

• New Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Implementation Strategy 2022-27 fails best practice test

• Sending recreational hunters into national parks in place of professionals is poor biosecurity policy

• Not declaring deer a feral species – as some other states have – represents a failure to treat this biosecurity problem seriously

• Feral deer are growing problem in lutruwita / Tasmania, harming agricultural, conservation & Wilderness World Heritage values

The following comments can be ascribed to the Wilderness Society (Tasmania) and the Tasmanian National Parks Association:

We welcome the objective to eradicate feral deer from lutruwita/Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage areas and national parks by the Tasmanian Government as outlined in its Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Implementation Strategy 2022-27.

We also welcome the Strategy’s consideration of aerial shooting.

However, we are concerned by some key policy failures in the Strategy.

The failure to declare deer a feral species means the Strategy falls at the first hurdle and makes clear the Tasmanian Government’s priority remains hunting not conservation.

If on-ground shooting is required to control feral deer, it needs to be by professional shooters tasked with eradication and under direction of the state Parks And Wildlife Service. It’s not an opportunity for a shooting party.