Trust Director of Policy gives evidence on deer management

Last Wednesday, 29 January, our Director of Policy David Fleetwood gave evidence to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee deer management round table at Holyrood.

Effective deer management is central to the John Muir Trust’s aspiration to see natural processes thrive on the land in our care and beyond. Deer management is crucial in allowing the regeneration of trees and habitats for increased biodiversity, nature restoration and climate benefits through carbon capture. 

You can support our policy work via our Wild Action Fund here. 

We impressed the following points onto Members of the Scottish Parliament:

• Current unnaturally high deer densities are having a major negative on habitat recovery and carbon sequestration
• We should up the national cull substantively until we measure positive habitat responses instead of relying on fixed deer target densities
• The proposed Deer Management Nature Restoration Orders (DMNROs) could have an immense positive impact at the scale and pace required#
• The Deer Working Group recommendations must be implemented in full, and the Deer Act sections 6-10 would benefit from reform
• Partnerships to deal with deer at landscape scale are valuable and should be supported
• The economics of stalking can be improved substantially by diversifying income streams and land management and by improving venison processing and marketing
• Communities should be supported to play a larger role in culling and processing venison

It was a positive discussion with lots to build on.

Photo: David Fleetwood (right) at the end of the session with Duncan Orr-Ewing, Head of Species and Land Management at RSPB Scotland and representative of the LINK Deer Group.