1 week Ago By Ashleigh Barraclough
Since the 1980s, a group of environmentally conscious residents on Tasmania's east coast have been rehabilitating a wetland beside a beach. "We're a ragtag bunch of people," said Quentin Smith, president and a founding member of the Seymour Community Action Group. The Landcare-recognised Seymour conservation group is fondly known as SCAGI.
The group has tackled gorse infestations and planted countless trees, and in 2022 successfully lobbied to have the project area added to the Seymour Conservation Area. Its 115-hectare conservation area borders the Douglas-Apsley National park north of Bicheno and is ecologically important as the home of vulnerable plant species as well as Tasmania's largest frog, the green and gold frog Litoria raniformis. But recently, trees planted by the group have been destroyed by feral deer.
Damage by foraging feral fallow deer to tree plantings in wetland area, Tasmania. "Last July, I went out there and there were some of our big trees — probably 3 metres plus, 4 metres — that had been pushed over," Mr Smith said. Quentin Smith (left) says the damage has taken a toll on morale.
He said he reported it on the , which led to a deer control expert coming to the area and confirming the damage was caused by the introduced species. Since then, the wreckage has continued. "I went out today, and there's another bunch of these little green plastic tree guard things, and I'll have to go and collect them up, because they get all broken up," Mr Smith said.
Despite knowing the trees will likely be destroyed, the group plans to continue planting. Members of the Seymour Community Action Group take a break from working on the land. Deer considered 'hunting resource' not pests Feral deer populations are booming in Queensland, damaging farms and costing millions, but some are turning them into a business opportunity.
The Seymour Community Action Group has been working with the Invasive Species Council to lobby the Tasmanian government to better resource deer control in the area. Senior conservation officer Tania Pirtle said unlike native Australian animals, deer were quite large and have hard hooves. "When they move through the landscape, they can cause a lot more damage to ground vegetation," Dr Pirtle said.
Deer were introduced to Tasmania in 1836 as a hunting resource. An aerial survey conducted in 2019 estimated the population to be 54,000 individuals, although it only surveyed the "traditional deer range". Hundreds of deer carcasses are left to rot in Tasmania's World Heritage Wilderness Area.
The species are managed under the Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan, which aims to curtail the spread of the population and reduce their abundance and geographic range. The plan recognises deer as an "important recreational hunting resource". This year, the hunting season for adult male deer was open from March 1 to April 6, while antler-less deer can be hunted between mid-March and mid-November.
A fallow deer stag captured on a trail camera in the Five River Reserve. Dr Pirtle said the state government's efforts in deer control were not good enough, given population growth and spread. Seymour wetland tree plantings, before the deer got to them.
"There are not enough boots on the ground to actually run an effective, targeted program across different land tenures to rapidly reduce the deer population, which is what we need to see now. "The problem is not going to go away, and it's going to keep getting worse and more expensive to deal with." The state government has been contacted for comment.
Quentin Smith says members of the group had spent thousands of dollars of their own money on rehabilitating the wetlands. Calls for government to tackle problem Mr Smith said members of the Seymour Community Action Group had spent more than $10,000 of their own money rehabilitating the wetlands. On top of that, they have also received government grants.
"We need to get some action here, really, just so we're not wasting the government's money with the trees we're planting that the deer are knocking down," he said. Despite population growth of around six per cent each year, deer are not considered pests in Tasmania. Dr Pirtle agreed.
"It's an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars if the Tasmanian government is going to pour grants into these grassroots bush regeneration projects but fails to tackle the invasive species that are trashing, tramping and degrading the parks in the first place," she said..
