In the early-morning mist, a herd of feral goats moves cautiously along a bush track in an area of state forest called Pennsylvania, near Blayney in Central Western NSW.
Two hundred metres away, Brian Boyle, a veteran hunter and the chief executive of the Game Council of NSW, dons a camouflage suit and face mask, and picks up his hunting bow.
"We're upwind - I'm going around them," he whispers.
Boyle is doing what he loves but what happens next sharply divides the rural community.
The Game Council has overseen the creation of over a hundred new "conservation hunting" reserves on public land in the last two years. The NSW Government announced another 92 new hunting zones in the Riverina on Friday.
The idea is to regulate hunting by allowing enthusiasts to target non-native "pest" species such as pigs, goats, deer and wild dogs.
But some environment groups and bush users believe hunting for sport is bloodthirsty and inhumane, and an inefficient way of keeping invasive species at bay.
There are about 1 million to 3 million feral goats roaming Australia, descended from a few thousand farm escapees. The herd in Pennsylvania State Forest is about 20 strong.
Boyle stalks in a wide, silent arc around the herd. The goats seem aware of a presence but continue to amble along the bush track, pausing regularly to chew leaves. Long minutes pass.
Then a faint thud. For one goat standing apart from the herd, the days of wandering the forest are over. Boyle, who has worked in an abattoir, expertly dismembers the carcass. Ten minutes after it was having breakfast, the goat is somebody else's.
"I don't understand people who oppose conservation hunting because the environmental benefits are enormous," Boyle said. "Hunters are some of the best conservationists around because they know the land and they have an understanding of animals and their behaviour. They are around to observe at times of day when no one else can."
Conservation hunting is big in the US, but is a more recent innovation in Australia. Under Game Council regulations, licenses are granted if volunteers meet skill and safety criteria, and revoked if rules are broken. About 6000 hunters are licensed under the scheme, and the council is keen to recruit more.
The organisation's meticulous post-hunt scorecards record the termination of 6436 rabbits, 3012 goats, 2478 feral pigs, 1507 foxes, 283 feral cats and 115 wild dogs in the last two years. "There's no better way to make friends with a farmer than to get rid of a few foxes," Boyle said.
Not everyone is happy to see public land used for recreational hunts. Bushwalkers and horse riders have reported qualms about sharing public bushland with a growing number of camouflaged hunters. And the NSW Greens believe the Government's willingness to declare more than 2 million hectares of public land available to conservation hunters has more to do with appeasing the NSW Shooters Party than a love of native wildlife.
"It is in the interests of these hunters to have plenty of potential game animals available in the hunting parks, so the idea that they are eradicating pests does not stack up," says a Greens MP, Lee Rhiannon. "Controlling pests should be part of a wildlife management plan, not a recreational pursuit."
The NSW Government says hunting in each newly gazetted reserve will be part of an invasive species management plan.
"These forests contain important native wildlife which must be protected from feral animals, including foxes and wild pigs," the Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald, said in a statement.
"The Game Council and Forests NSW will implement seasonal closures of a number of these forests to coincide with peak-use periods by other visitors."
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