More on deer culling
Malcolm
letters columns today:
Deer cull will be in the interests of everyone
YOUR report (June 10) on the heavy cull of deer on the Coignafearn
estate near Aviemore illustrates the need for a much more informed
debate about the issues raised by an overpopulation of deer. "Sporting"
estates are valued partly according to the number of stags which they
hold, so it is in the owners' financial interest to keep the numbers
high. But high numbers of deer cause great damage to forestry,
agriculture, and natural heritage, as well as to the interests of the
deer themselves which thrive best at low densities in a wooded
landscape.
So we have a problem over much of Highland Scotland. Shifting the
balance back to lower deer numbers, and restoration of more varied,
productive, and beautiful landscapes, is very much in the public
interest. This is not a move "against stalking", as your report
suggests, but in favour of restoration which will serve everyone's
interests better in the long run, including those employed in these
areas. Coignafearn should be congratulated.
Simon Pepper, director, WWF Scotland, 8 The Square, Aberfeldy.
Angus Macmillan is right to assert that the culling of deer by
Coignafearn estate is an animal-welfare issue (Letters, June 13), but he
needs to consider welfare in the round.
When I first visited the area around Coignafearn a few years ago I was
depressed at what I saw. A landscape that should have been dominated by
native woodland and meadows on the low ground, rising to
heather-dominated uplands, was instead more akin to a bowling-green
shorn by too many mouths eating too little vegetation.
Red deer, in those circumstances, are chronically undernourished, lack
shelter, and are at risk of catastrophic death-rates in the event of a
hard winter.
Mr Macmillan is also right to assert that these conditions are the
result, not of any lack of natural predators, but of a failure on the
part of some landowners to manage deer responsibly. The best option, for
the land, for the deer, and for the host of other species (plants,
animals, insects, and birds) of our uplands, is to manage the land as an
ecosystem where the deer are kept in balance with the vegetation.
Far from being castigated, Sigrid Rausing is to be commended for taking
a broader view and facing up to the responsibilities that come with
owning large tracts of semi-wild land.
Martin Mathers, 69 Glengarry Crescent, Falkirk.
Collaborative approach is necessary
I refer to your report on culling red deer (June 10). While not in a
position to comment on the individual case, the Association of Deer
Management Groups believes that any suggestion that there is a hidden
political agenda to marginalise deer-stalking as an economic activity is
supposition only. The deer economy is of great importance across much of
rural Scotland. To undermine it would not be in the public interest, and
would have very damaging social and economic implications at local
level.
Over recent years a number of estates in Scotland have been acquired by
individuals and organisations whose primary management objective is the
regeneration of habitat rather than the management of deer as an
economic resource.
There is plenty of room for both, but when it comes to deer, a
free-ranging wild species, a collaborative approach is necessary across
a number of estates, and that is why we have deer management groups.
There are now more than 60 of these groups covering almost all
Scotland's deer range. Each group covers the local range of a specific
deer population, and their members co-operate in the management of the
deer and their habitat.
Groups are voluntary, and a key purpose is to sort out the necessary
compromises between neighbours who may have different and sometimes
conflicting management objectives. Group members should recognise that
their actions can affect their neighbours and be prepared to modify
their own plans in the common interest.
In most cases DMGs are very effective, but they do depend on good
communication between members, without which misunderstanding can
result. The public agencies, principally the Deer Commission for
Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, and the Forestry Commission, have
an important advisory role to play in this process, and should do all
they can to encourage land managers to discuss their individual plans
openly with their neighbours in the context of the deer management
group.
R M J Cooke, secretary, Association of Deer Managment Groups, Dalhousie
Estates Office, Brechin.
--
Malcolm