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“This alarming rise in feral horses trashing and trampling Kosciuszko National Park should be a red flag for those in the government who care about the environment and are concerned about the future of the Snowy Mountains,” he said.

“The future of vulnerable wildlife such as the corroboree frog, sensitive alpine wildflowers and the headwaters of the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers are at stake if horse numbers are not brought down rapidly.

“If this is not urgently turned around, we may see more than 50,000 horses in the National Park in seven to eight years’ time.”

Gough said while it was understandable that after years of inaction, initial control efforts would be slow to take effect, the current rate of horse removal was nowhere near adequate.

A spokesperson for NSW Environment Minister James Griffin said the government was delivering wild horse control as per the requirements of the management plan.

Feral horse management has been a controversial issue for the government. The current plan, which was signed off last year, is in part a reprise of the 2016 draft management document that also called for the reduction of horse numbers to fewer “than 3000 in five to 10 years”.

However, at that time, there were only about 6000 brumbies in the Kosciuszko National Park, and the numbers have continued to swell, even taking into account the widespread fires in the park during the 2019-20 Black Summer.

In the past three years, National Parks and Wildlife Services has removed more than 10,000 feral animals, including nearly 7000 feral deer. A spokesperson said the key driver behind the boom had been two good seasons of growth after years of drought and fires.

In response to claims that the government needed to do more to reduce feral horse numbers, the spokesperson said that the management plan had been designed to balance the need to protect the park and the best available science.