The Association of Deer Management Groups (ADMG), the organisation that represents deer managers in Scotland, has welcomed the report by the Mar Lodge Independent Review Panel published this week.
Richard Cooke, ADMG Chairman, says:
We welcome this thorough and balanced review which gives some very clear pointers, after years of difference and conjecture, over the future way forward at Mar Lodge that will enable the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) to pursue its objectives while at the same time not disadvantaging those other landholdings within the Deer Management Group.
While the report identifies some management failings it also indicates with some confidence that the potential conflicts between the principle Mar Lodge Estate objectives are reconcilable.
Limited term fencing is identified as having a role to play in the solution – a view that ADMG and other organisations have long advocated.
There are important lessons from this for all land managers, and deer managers in particular, and we would hope that this report heralds a greater recognition of the need for all to take account of the impacts of their policies on others, and of the need to compromise to avoid causing negative economic or environmental impacts on neighbouring land.
Deer Management Groups are the ideal forum in which these issues can be aired and negotiated, and we look forward to working more closely with NTS at DMG level in future.
We trust that some of the findings of the review will in due course be reflected in NTS deer policy across Scotland as a whole.”