Australia's high country has long suffered the effects of feral horses and a federal parliamentary inquiry says there's an urgent need to slash the 25,000 that run through the sensitive region.
It has recommended NSW lift a ban on aerial culling in the Kosciuszko National Park.
The committee also wants a national plan to manage the risks horses pose.
And it says habitat degradation, competition and disease transmission by feral horses should be listed as key threatening processes under federal environment laws.
NSW laws that protect feral horses had facilitated an exponential boom in the population, while limiting the ability of the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service to manage them.
"It has been made clear that if feral horse populations are not urgently managed, there is a real risk of losing this unique landscape and the native species that call it home," the committee found.
Action was urgent to prevent the extinction of species such as the critically endangered Southern Corroboree Frog, Stocky Galaxias fish and other unique alpine species.
"The committee recommends that the NSW Government update the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow the use of aerial shooting as one of the available feral horse control methods ..." it said.
During the course of the inquiry, the NSW government said it would begin public consultation on allowing aerial shooting in order to meet its commitment to cut the Kosciuszko population to 3,000 by mid-2027.
It was estimated at 19,000 in 2022 and conservation groups told the inquiry aerial culling was the only way the state would meet that target.
NSW has been relying on trapping and rehoming, and ground shooting, putting it at odds with the ACT and Victoria, where both aerial and ground shooting are allowed.
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