Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story, as they say. Mike Russell is at least consistent in that he continues to assert, as he did during the Land Reform Bill stages that there are too many deer in Scotland, doing irrevocable damage to the natural heritage and that a fully regulated deer sector is the only way ahead (pre judging the outcome of the 2016 Scottish Government Review). In doing so he simply repeats the drip feed of misinformation recited incessantly by some of the environmental NGOs over many years. To be fair there has been some justification for these assertions in the past but those keen to judge must really take note that the deer sector has undergone and is continuing to undergo radical change.
What is meant by “too many deer”? Let us, for once, look at some facts.
- SNH reported to the RACCE Committee in 2013 that there were estimated to be 275,000 red deer in the open hill range, covering 32,600 square kilometres.
- This represents a stocking density of 8.6 deer per square kilometre overall, obviously with local variation.
- There is a winter sheep population of 815,000 breeding ewes to be found in the same area (SGRPID stats 2014 for Highland, Grampian and Tayside).
- Using the SGRPID formula to calculate livestock units and stocking density, if the population of breeding sheep and red deer are added together the total stocking density in the highland red deer range is 0.06 livestock units per hectare, just a fraction above the minimum stocking density required by the Scottish Government of farmers to qualify for the Basic Payment Scheme.
- 85.3% of designated site features where deer are present are, to quote SNH in 2015 “in favourable condition, recovering due to management, or unfavourable but with site condition monitoring (SCM) herbivore targets being met”. Thus deer impacts remain to be rectified on just 14.7% of designated sites.
- Deer were reported in the media as being the main culprit in the Native Woodland Survey of Scotland (Forestry Commission 2015) but ongoing analysis by SNH has identified that just half of the native woodland area, 161,000 hectares, lies within the red deer range and that only around a third of this is in unfavourable condition owing to herbivore impacts (not just deer). Further analysis indicates that grazing impacts are no greater in importance as a threat to healthy regenerating native woodlands than introduced tree species.
Does this paint a picture of a devastated environment overrun by wild and domestic herbivores. Hardly. Furthermore domestic livestock numbers have fallen dramatically over recent decades and deer numbers have also been reduced by heavy culling which is being maintained at a level of around 70,000 red deer annually.
All these statistics were sent personally to Mike Russell by the Association of Deer Management Groups and to all his Parliamentary colleagues in February. He was also supplied with the results of a new independent economic study of the deer sector (Public and Corporate Economic Consultants Feb. 2016) which reveals that deer management in Scotland contributes over £140m annually to the rural economy of Scotland and supports 2,520 full time equivalent jobs. In terms of the Scottish Governments rural strategy, sustainability is supposed to be about a virtuous balance of economic, environmental and social outcomes. So for those who want to further reduce our red deer population please think about the impact in terms of jobs and rural communities.
What exactly is meant by those who call for full regulation of deer management? The deer sector is already highly regulated. In addition to the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996, the Wildlife & Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 and now the additional powers of intervention introduced in Part 8 of the soon to be Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 (which, incidentally, ADMG supports), we have the Scottish Government joint agencies 20 year policy document Wild Deer – A National Approach, the SNH Code of Practice on Deer Management, the ADMG Benchmark and Principles of Collaboration, the SNH Guide to Deer Management Plans: Delivering the Public Interest, the SNH DMG Assessments System (Baseline Study in 2014, repeat Assessment Spring 2016) and the 80 practical guides of Wild Deer Best Practice. Furthermore we have the second RACCE Review to be carried out in the Autumn of 2016. They talk about the Voluntary Principle, but there is really not much wriggle room in that tight framework, just enough flexibility to allow for the practical application of deer management at local level.
Deer management has become enmeshed with land reform. When I saw Mike Russell in January he expressed his conviction that voluntary deer management had failed and that regulation was the only way ahead. He said it was “not about class warfare” although I had not suggested that it was! We really need to consider deer management, with the public interest very much in mind, objectively, and on the basis of evidence. Deer in Scotland have been researched exhaustively and the facts are available and some of them are summarised above. Furthermore the continuing obsession with single species management obstructs what all agree is necessary which is to move to a landscape scale, holistic and adaptive approach to management to optimise economic, environmental and social outcomes.
Richard Cooke
Chairman
The Association of Deer Management Groups
March 2016
The Michael Russell article on the SWT blog is available here:
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/blog-post/50-for-the-future–reduce-wild-deer-densities/