Finlay Clark: Failure to agree on managing deer could prove expensive

Published on 23/01/2013 00:00

Scottish Natural Heritage’s (SNH) recent deer report weighs up the cost of deer to the Scottish economy.

On one hand, the management of the species as game generates income and employment in our rural outreaches, with deerstalking thought to generate more than £105 million a year. But on the other hand, deer damage forestry, cause road accidents and are increasingly establishing themselves in our towns and cities.

These polarities mean deer, and particularly red deer, divide the public and often cause serious disputes between neighbours. Arguments are raging in several areas as to whether there should be more or fewer deer, and, as a consequence, deer numbers are far higher in some areas of Scotland than in others.

Estate managers work hard to influence herbivore impact on their land, be it to encourage deer for stalking or to keep them away to protect woodland or allow grouse numbers to rise. Unfortunately, this means one estate may believe one or two deer per square kilometre is acceptable, while next door the landowner may strive to see ten or 12 for each square kilometre.

As we all know, deer roam freely and nobody can tell them where they are welcome. The only solution is for various parties to engage in the local Deer Management Group that sets out and adheres to a plan. Of course, such action means there has to be discussion, compromise, negotiation and a willingness to find a solution. Deer Management Groups have made significant strides over the past ten years but there is much work to do.

The Scottish Government has chosen to leave deer control unregulated in the belief that, by establishing Deer Management Groups, landowners can do what’s best for each area. However, if things do become irrevocably heated SNH can intervene.

We must see more effort to establish working Deer Management Groups in the immediate future. If not, the government may decide legislation is the only way forward, involving costly and unnecessary bureaucracy no-one in land management would welcome.

• Finlay Clark is managing partner at Bidwells Scotland and secretary of the Association of Deer Management Groups.