In November 2012 the NSW Government released Strategic Directions for Horse Riding in NSW National Parks – the 'strategy'.
The strategy committed to providing horse riding opportunities in parks, including the implementation of a 2-year pilot program involving a trial of horse riding in 5 wilderness areas, subject to adopted amendments to plans of management for the relevant parks. The proposed pilot program was to be based on a strategic adaptive management framework. The framework for this pilot program involved implementing a 5-step process in collaboration with user groups (particularly the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Horse Riding Consultative Group), regional advisory committee members, NPWS field staff, specialists and an expert panel. This included 4 workshops, which were run using a structured decision-making (SDM) approach.
This document builds on the Monitoring Framework for Wilderness Horse Riding Trial, further explains the SDM process and documents the outcomes of the workshops.