SSAA National speaks to ABC Wide Bay program about conservation hunting
ABC Wide Bay, Mornings, 19/11/08 09:07am
Interview with Matthew Godson, spokesperson, Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia, about whether conservation hunters are the answer to the growing feral animal menace
David Dowsett: Matthew Godson is from the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia. Matthew, good morning.
Matthew Godson: Yes, good morning, David.
David Dowsett: Matthew, how would your organisation like to tackle the impact of feral animals?
Matthew Godson: Well, first, we’ve got many members who’ve spent much time in the field and also on the range developing skills. And we see our members as a valuable resource to be able to use in conservation to hopefully get rid of some of these feral animals that are causing widespread damage to both flora and fauna in Australia.
David Dowsett: Has your organisation already been involved in some programs targeting certain animals?
Matthew Godson: Oh, we certainly have. In South Australia in the early 90s, we became involved in a program called Operation Bounce Back, which was to help the re-introduction of the Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby down here. And that involved getting rid of quite a - many thousands of feral goats that were just destroying the landscape up in the Gammon Ranges. Close into Queensland there we’ve got a project - Project Flashback, which is looking at the re-introduction of the Bridled Nailtail Wallaby. And all of those programs are in connection with state government organisations and they are run very well and they have been running very well for quite some time.
David Dowsett: Can you just explain how such a hunt takes place?
Matthew Godson: Well, with these organised hunts, they are organised between the National Parks and the sub-group of our agency, they’re called Hunting & Conservation and they are managed hunts. At times, we actually have a park closed down to make sure that it’s a totally safe working environment for, I guess, you know, the general public, as well as our members and also staff of government agencies. And they go in, do the job and then repeat that on a monthly basis in need. So it’s all part of a strategic feral animal control plan, it’s not just ad hoc where they just go in and shoot and that’s it. It’s a continual process where populations are monitored and they actually monitor the impacts or the declining impacts of these feral animals once their populations diminish.
David Dowsett: So how long does it take for each hunt, how long - is it just sort of a just a weekend that you spend hunting and then you come back again in a month’s time; how long does it take?
Matthew Godson: Look, it varies, it depends on the project. Sometimes if there’s just, you know, a couple of problem animals that could be a night, a weekend. A larger sort of exercise especially could take a week or two weeks. It just depends on what’s there and how the problem is drawn up or designed to be managed by both the Association. as well as the government agencies involved.
David Dowsett: What would you see as being the environmental benefits of the - of conservation hunting compared to maybe other methods of pest control?
Matthew Godson: Oh, look, not all methods of control and there’s no magic bullet. And it’s about using all tools that we have: poisons, trapping and conservation hunting, to try and get on top of this problem. And that’s the key message. It has to be a combined variety of control methods to try and get these feral animal populations down. And, by using a conservation hunter, I guess the actual outgoing costs to the public through taxpayers’ money is minimal. Because our members donate their time, donate their effort, and it’s really just like a volunteer planting a tree in the National Park, it’s the same sort of thing. But, instead of planting the tree, they are culling a goat that’s looking after that - who would destroy that tree.
David Dowsett: How many hunters do you have willing to - to heed the call to arms?
Matthew Godson: Well, if you look, our membership at the moment is 120,000 members Australia-wide. And part of this process that I’m employed to do is to try and increase the participation of our general member population into conservation hunting. I’d love it if I could get 120,000 people out there to do conservation hunting because, even if they only take two foxes a year, that’s, you know, 200,000 plus foxes that are not killing our native animals. So, it’s certainly a push from our National level of our Association to increase participation in conservation hunting because the conservation outcomes, if so many people that could do it, are absolutely huge.
David Dowsett: What sort of controls are in place for the hunters involved in this?
Matthew Godson: Controls as in...
David Dowsett: Yeah, I mean how do you control it, do they use certain licences, or what’s the...
Matthew Godson: Oh, look, all our members that are involved in the sub-branches have accreditation which is to like bushcraft as well as even accuracy in shooting. And a lot of the accreditation is actually to the standard that you’d find for professional shooters. So, if you’re looking at accuracy and, for the argument, use professional shooters, the majority of the members, or all of the members that are shooting in the hunting conservation branches, all have that certain level of training - to do the job efficiently and ethically.
David Dowsett: Is there a danger, though, that when you have camouflaged hunters roaming around public bushland along with maybe bushwalkers and maybe some horse-riders, that could be fairly - fairly dangerous, couldn’t it?
Matthew Godson: Oh, that shouldn’t really happen. Because, if we’re looking at a controlled activity, the agents - state agencies would signpost - they normally close the section of the park that the culling activities are happening in. Certainly, safety is a very keen or a very high priority of any one of our activities when we’re looking at our organised culling with state agencies. So safety is the number-one rule here and the chances of the general public or even a member or a staff member being injured is - is very, it’s non-existent.
David Dowsett: Some might also say that controlling pests should be left to a wildlife management plan not a recreational pursuit; what would you say to that?
Matthew Godson: Well, in the way in which these hunting activities, these culls are organised - there is a plan. It is an actual wildlife management plan. Like the National Parks collect data from how many goats or foxes are taken, how many goats or foxes are sighted and also the members while they are out there would actually take note of any sightings of native animals. So it’s a pretty well-organised activity where it is like a wildlife plan; it is a management plan that’s being undertaken.
David Dowsett: So what do you need to happen now to give the hunters the green light to really get out there and get to work?
Matthew Godson: Well it’s just a matter of the perception that we are part of the solution. And we can fit that mould, we’ve got many, many people willing to volunteer their time and effort for the cause of conservation to try and give our native animals a fairer go and to try and decrease the populations of feral animals. Yeah, it’s a public perception. You know, we’re not out there to do harm; we’re out there to do good for the Australian environment.
David Dowsett: Matthew Godson, thanks very much for your time this morning.
Matthew Godson: Thank you.
David Dowsett: Thanks. Matthew Godson from the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia.
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