A planned horse cull, scheduled to begin in just weeks, should be expanded to the bushfire-scarred New England region, according to an environmental group.
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Dozens of horses starved to death in the Guy Fawkes national park after last year's bushfires, according to a Colong Foundation report.
NSW Parks and Wildlife Services staff will soon begin the process of shifting horses out of Kosciuszko National Park in the state's south.
Natural Areas Campaigner Wilson Harris said that shows the state government has put the option of a cull back on the table.
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Without reducing the number of horses "I think it won't recover as well," he said.
"Whilst there's been a lot of damage that has occurred to this area already it certainly has the potential to recover. It needs the space to free of these hard-hooved animals compacting and destroying these valleys and the hillsides.
"There's always the chance for recovery, but it'll certainly not be as full or as good a recovery as if they weren't there."
The bushfire-affected area is probably as overtaxed by feral horses as Kosciuszko or more so, he said, describing the National Park as one of the worst-affected in the state. The area is in "dire need" of a cull, he said.
National Parks officers did organise a cull in the park in February, but horses were off the list of targets.
The conservation group, which conducted a walking study of the wilderness area in October last year, estimated there were over 2000 horses in the park, totally dominating the landscape.
In a three day walk they saw 212 emaciated horses, 28 dead horses and 3 animals dying.
Mr Harris called it a "bloodbath".
"You didn't have to go far before the smell of death was on you again. It was a very brief reprieve where you couldn't smell a dead or dying animal, it was horrific."
Solid rainfall in 2020 has ended the horror, he said, but it's inevitable it will recur.
Australian feral horses live in a classic Malthusian boom-bust cycle, with their population building up beyond sustainable limits, driving everything else off the land until they eat everything and inevitably starve in their hundreds.
With the precedent set in Southern NSW, he hoped the NPWS would consider a cull in the New England.
"Obviously it's an incredibly politically contested issue but the state government would be totally remiss if they didn't act on the advice of scientists everywhere and their own bodies and committees that are focused on bushfire recovery.
"[They] have emphasised feral animals are one of the greatest threats post-fires that needs to be addressed."
The NSW Minister for National Parks and Wildlife Matt Keane was contacted for this story but didn't respond to questions by deadline.
But the last cull in Guy Fawkes National Park took place in 2000. Over three days, 606 horses were shot.
