The management of wild deer and its interaction with other interests, including public access and the environment, is an issue of long standing interest to Ramblers Scotland.
Seeing deer is an experience highly valued by people out walking, whether it is a herd of Red Deer running across the side of a hill, or the brief glimpse of a single Roe Deer in a lowland wood.
They are an important part of the Scottish countryside, playing a crucial part in shaping the landscape and the wildlife that lives there, through grazing the vegetation and providing carrion for scavenging birds like the Golden Eagle. They are also important for the rural economy.
The key issues for us are:
Fencing
Excluding deer from large areas of forest or grouse moor using fences results in negative impacts on public access, landscape and wildlife.In addition this can encourage higher deer numbers to congregate on adjacent areas of land. The long term, sustainable solution to this is to address the shortfall in cull levels to allow regeneration or establishment of woodland without use of fences.
Clearly there will be circumstances where fencing will be the only viable option, but in general we would expect population management to be the preferred option. Grant aid can be structured so that deer population management becomes a much more attractive economic proposition for woodland managers. This would have a more significant social and economic importance locally than fencing contractors coming in for a one-off job.
Impact on the natural heritage
If the size of a deer population is suppressing natural processes such as the regeneration of vegetation then this cannot be considered to be sustainable.What constitutes a sustainable population will vary across Scotland, and will also vary according to landuse.
We welcome the inter-agency approach where Scottish Natural Heritage, the Forestry Commission and the Rural Directorate of the Scottish Government work together to create partnerships to deliver results on the ground. There has been a lot of good work done recently to address adverse impacts on designated sites like SSSIs and sites of European importance. Expansion of these efforts to the wider countryside would bring benefit to wildlife and for visitors to the hills who enjoy our natural heritage.
Strategy for Wild Deer in Scotland
Ramblers Scotland endorses the case put forward by Scottish Environment LINK on Wild Deer In Scotland, in response to the Strategy Consultation.
