Horse impacts

The animals affect a range of species through their damage to streams, wetlands and adjacent lands, with impacts from trampling and soil compaction to the spread of weeds.

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Alpine and sub-alpine regions are particularly vulnerable to the horse given many species are slow-growing in part because of the short season. Sphagnum bogs, for instance, which were vulnerable to the hard-hooved animals, grow just 2.3-3.5 centimetres per century, the report said.

The panel found 23 threatened plant and 11 threatened animal species – such as the southern and northern corroboree frogs – were being adversely affected by the feral animals.

In addition, they "could cause species or ecological communities that are not threatened to become threatened", it said.

Management plan

Supporters of protecting the horses say they hold historic importance after being introduced to the high country almost 200 years ago.

A spokesman for Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton said the government was preparing a plan of management that would "identify the heritage value of sustainable wild horse populations and set out how those will be protected while maintaining environmental values".

"In locations where the wild horse population needs to be managed, the priority is to remove the animals by rehoming them," she said. "Fertility control methods will also be investigated" with "rigorous monitoring" informing future decisions.

Labor's environment spokeswoman Penny Sharpe said an ALP government would repeal the Wild Horses Act and reinstate the National Parks and Wildlife Act.

“The horses are destroying the fragile alpine area and need to be managed not given special protection over every other animal and plant in Kosciuszko National Park," Ms Sharpe said, adding it will take long-term investment to repair the catchment.

Cate Faehrmann, the Greens environment spokeswoman, said the government's "ridiculous policy" should be reversed immediately: "If they don’t, then it confirms that the Liberal Party has completely abandoned science and the environment for the sake of ideology”.

Advisory panel boycott

The National Parks Association and the Colong Foundation for Wilderness were among the conservation groups planning to boycott the community advisory panel.

“NPA will not participate in a process to develop a plan that values an introduced species over threatened native species and ecological communities in Kosciuszko National Park,” Alix Goodwin, chief executive of the NPA, said.

Keith Muir, the Colong Foundation's head, said the government should abandon the wild horse act and "take urgent action to cull horses" in the famous national park.