The JMT welcomed plans for deer management. Photo: Bill Ebbesen ![[CC-2.0]](/lib/img/layout/cc-attr.gif)
A conservation charity has welcomed moves by the Scottish Government to control deer numbers.
Holyrood’s land reform consultation announced this week calls for its advisory body Scottish Natural Heritage to be given powers to force landowners to implement deer management plans.
The John Muir Trust said the plan represents a chance to protect land from overgrazing. It said the new powers would underpin the current voluntary system, as a backstop to be used if the voluntary arrangements fail to deliver 2020 biodiversity targets.
It added the Scottish Government is also carrying out a separate review, which will be concluded in 2016, into whether the voluntary arrangements should be replaced by a new statutory system of deer management.
Mike Daniels, the trust’s head of land and science said: “We warmly welcome this proposal from the Scottish Government to take action to protect what remains of our native woodland.
“For the benefit of a tiny minority, much of our upland environment is bare, degraded and impoverished as a result of overgrazing by deer.
“Many sporting estates have not just allowed, but encouraged deer numbers to escalate to unsustainable levels, which are harmful both to our ecosystem and to the wellbeing of the deer themselves.
“This is a chance to halt and reverse two centuries of destruction.”
Ian Archibald
07 December 2014What rubbish - "...harmful both to our ecosystem and to the wellbeing of the deer..." - how on earth would the John Muir Trust be in a position to assess exactly what is harmful to the ecosystem and (especially) the deer?
JMT has no direct access to deer forests to definitely assess condition and has no access and no qualification or experience to assess the condition of the deer thereon.
john brady
07 December 2014So where is the research that shows Mr Daniels claim that “Many sporting estates have not just allowed, but encouraged deer numbers to escalate to unsustainable levels, which are harmful both to our ecosystem and to the wellbeing of the deer themselves."
I would like to see it.
Ridgegripper
08 December 2014Well Mr Brady, perhaps you could answer where else have the natural forested areas gone ??
Where is the evidence of anything other than sporting estates & land degradation caused by mis-management?
....many would like to see that as well?
tbh
10 December 2014Mr Brady,
For peer-reviewed, non-partisan evidence, try a quick search on Google Scholar using some of the terms in the article. I found "scotland, deer, grazing, land" returned a wealth of results. I suspect that evidence to the contrary of this article will be pretty thin on the ground.