ChrisButch wrote:The management of deer numbers is a complex subject, on which there has recently been a Scottish Government review.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/management-wild-deer-scotland/.
The fundamental problem is that numbers on shooting estates are kept high artificially, and consequent overgrazing and habitat loss is inevitable. However, some recent community buyouts of shooting estates (Knoydart, North Harris etc) have shown that it's possible to keep numbers down and manage sustainably. Similarly with the policies of some of the more enlightened big landowners, such as in Glen Feshie, where natural forest is regenerating at astonishing speed without destroying the stalking.
Agreed, its about sustainability - a lower population and therefore better condition often results in better trophy beasts anyway.
We've also seen some really poor management decisions out there by 'conservationists'* too - the Mar Lodge report is well worth reading, the NT's clear surprise that knocking seven bells out of the red population resulted in an explosion in the roe population, which were a whole load more difficult to deal with, I found particularly amusing. There is a lot to be done about better integrating woodland and deer - the 'if its brown, its down' attitude of many foresters hasn't helped, and we need more enlightened solutions than perimeter fencing in order to better accommodate the transient nature of red deer and their winter behaviour - eg. lots of small fence regeneration coupes better aligned with CCF rather than clearcut.
its also naive to talk about the whole of Scotland as if its a single and uniform habitat or ecosystem, or for that matter to talk about 'deer' as if there is a single solution that can be applied across the board that doesn't need very specific management options aligned to the particular habitat of behaviour of the different species .
However, after that brief sojourn, to take this back on point - the current situation regards the ongoing need for deer management in Scotland utterly undermines the previously argued point that:
guns have no place in my countryside for any purposes whatsoever.
At the same time, those who say they've been in the hills and didn't see any wildlife. I would politely suggest they don't know what they're looking at.
*to quote Ronnie Rose - "three years in Edinburgh being taught by someone else who's spent three years in Edinburgh"
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