When NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe announced earlier this week that aerial shooting was back on the table as a possible brumby control option, passions rose to the surface, as they always do on this issue.
"NSW Labor has revisited... gunship slaughter," brumby advocate Alan Lanyon told Today in his trademark emotive language.
"For far too long, the most humane and effective control method has not been available for feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park," Invasive Species Council Indigenous ambassador Richard Swain countered in more measured tones.
Why people love brumbies
Brumbies have roamed the high country of NSW and Victoria for up to 200 years.
They were celebrated in the poetry of Banjo Paterson and in The Silver Brumby stories penned by the late Elyne Mitchell.
Because of their celebration in literature, and because a wild horse thundering across the snow grass tussocks is a hell of a sight, many Australians see brumbies as the heart and soul of the mountains.
Show them the grandest vista from the highest summit, and it'll pale in comparison to the swish of a brumby's tail as it hides among the snow gums.
Why brumbies pose an environmental problem
Unfortunately, brumbies cause terrible damage to the alpine landscape.
The presence of huge herds of 300kg horses with hard hooves is devastating to fragile alpine plants which evolved for thousands of years alongside only small, soft-footed animals like wallabies.
Across the mountains, brumbies are turning crystal clear mountain streams to stinking, stagnant mudheaps.
They are trampling and destroying the spongey sphagnum moss that is home to the endangered corroboree frog.
They are grazing fields of snow grass to bare earth, exposing native ground-dwelling mammals that rely on grass for cover from predators.
And they are increasingly a menace to motorists.
Take a look at these two images.
The first shows the state of a creek in brumby country in northern Kosciuszko National Park.
The second shows a pristine creek in a nearby valley where brumbies generally don't go.
Ecologists liken the damage to coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.
Their numbers just keep growing...
Kosciuszko National Park head ranger Dave Darlington first became concerned at rising brumby numbers back in the late 1990s.
He says there were "only" about 1000 brumbies then, but even that number was considered a problem.
Today, the estimate is as high as 23,000.
Brumby advocates dispute that number, and while they have no evidence to back up their claims, in a sense the actual number of horses is irrelevant.
What's apparent to everyone in and around Kosciuszko National Park is that there are far, far more brumbies than ever before.
Sadly, rehoming brumbies on a mass scale is not feasible, as there are simply not tens of thousands of people out there who are capable of taking a horse.
Even ground shooting has become relatively ineffective as a control method with so many brumbies in the park, as authorities just can't get the job done quickly enough.
It's also worth remembering that the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Management Plan specifies that there should be around 3000 brumbies.
That's the plan put in place to protect the brumbies by former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro - the first piece of legislation in Australian history prioritising non-native animals in a national park.
That's why aerial shooting is being put on the table again
Aerial shooting of horses has effectively been banned in NSW since the year 2000, after one horse was found alive and severely wounded a full week after a cull of 600 brumbies in Guy Fawkes River National Park in northern NSW.
Amid a public outcry, the then-state environment minister Bob Debus put a moratorium on the practice.
The snow grass plains of northern Kosciuszko are less tricky terrain than the gorge country of Guy Fawkes, which is why Kosciuszko National Park rangers believe the likelihood of a similar mishap is extremely remote.
Aside from the need to protect Australia's unique alpine environment from hard hooves, a large brumby cull this summer may prevent an animal welfare tragedy in the coming years.
The land won't be able to sustain a herd this size when the summer rain stops falling after three wet La Niña years.
In the severe drought of the late 2010s, thousands of brumbies perished from starvation in Kosciuszko National Park, many on the banks of the iconic Snowy River in extremely distressing scenes.
As cruel as any aerial shoot might appear, it wouldn't be that ugly.
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