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Help stop a US company selling weed seeds into Australia

A year after we exposed just how easy it is to illegally import banned weed seeds into Australia via the internet one international company still doesn’t get the picture, and is continuing to send prohibited seeds into the country.
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In November last year our CEO Andrew Cox featured in The Land's front page news story warning that a credit card and internet are all that’s needed to introduce Australia’s next major weed.
In November last year our CEO Andrew Cox featured in The Land’s front page news story warning that a credit card and internet are all that’s needed to introduce Australia’s next major weed.

In mid-2014 we demonstrated how easy it was to illegally import banned weed seeds into Australia by buying them through eBay.

Through an online investigation, we exposed multiple sellers of highly invasive species such as Mexican feathergrass (Naselle tenuissima) and kochia (Kochia scoparia) .

Since then, Australia’s Department of Agriculture has done a great job reducing the sale of prohibited seeds via eBay and other online sellers by engaging with the administrators of these sites and with international suppliers to promote compliance with Australian quarantine laws. In recent searches on eBay we have found far fewer examples of prohibited seeds advertised for sale to Australia.

However, not all international companies are willing to stop selling prohibited seeds into Australia. One such company is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

On the popular review website Yelp, the Department of Agriculture has posted a negative review (16 September), warning that Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds “continues to send prohibited seeds to Australia after being informed of import requirements aimed at protecting Australia’s unique environment and agricultural industries”.

Let us see if we can generate enough online pressure to motivate Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds to reform their ways. Please leave your own negative review on Yelp. The company claims to have a conscience – see their ‘About Us’ page – so let them know they could cause serious damage to the Australian environment and agriculture by selling prohibited seeds to Australians. You could also leave comments on their Facebook page.

Examples of prohibited seeds being sold by the company include Ricinus communis, Datura metal and Marrubium vulgare. Australia’s farmers should be concerned as the company is also selling several restricted fruit and vegetable species.

While exerting online pressure is common practice for other environmental issues, we suspect this is a pioneering endeavour in biosecurity. Let’s make it work! We’ll monitor the site and let you know how it goes.

The Invasive Species Council will also continue to report to the Department of Agriculture other online sites that offer sales of prohibited seeds. Let us know if you find any.

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Your support to protect critically endangered and vulnerable species from extinction is vital. Together, we can ensure governments prioritise action on invasive species and protect our wildlife and iconic places.

The Invasive Species Council was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to protect nature from harmful pests, weeds and diseases.

The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

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Your gift is a lifeline for nature.

Our protected areas are being trashed, trampled, choked and polluted by an onslaught of invaders. Invasive species are already the overwhelming driver of our animal extinction rate, and are expected to cause 75 of the next 100 extinctions.

But you can help to turn this around and create a wildlife revival in Australia.

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    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]


    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]