Reporting from the Forestry Commission’s recent event, ‘Managing Deer Across the English Landscape’, which covered such topics as drones, promoting venison and reintroducing lynx.
THIS all-day event held near Worcester in April was organised by the Forestry Commission deer team, just one of a series of events designed to raise awareness amongst woodland owners of the need for better deer management across England. That seems to be working, with a sell-out of 220 paying delegates attended – probably a record for a lowland deer conference.
After a 9.30am start, the chair for the day, Alastair Boston, FC deer officer for the North West and West Midlands, welcomed attendees and ran through the enticing programme. He explained how the team’s remit is to provide national oversight to the deer management work plus the development of policy, regulations and incentives. They work in co-operation with Forestry England, Natural England and key partners to enable collaborative, landscape-scale deer management that will make a real difference in reducing the negative impact of deer on woodlands.
COUNTRYSIDE STEWARDSHIP, HIGHER TIER WS1: DEER SUPPLEMENT
First up was Jamie Cordery, FC deer officer for the SE and London region, who explained the ethos and workings of this novel supplement.
It is available on whole or part parcels where deer have been flagged up in an FC woodland management plan as a threat to semi-natural woodlands, regeneration and/or where deer browsing negatively impacts on woodland features, ground flora or structure.
The supplement offers up to £90/ha/year, a tempting sum for the gems in the woodland conservation crown such as SSSIs or NNRs. Further detailed Ts and Cs are on the Defra website.
DEER POPULATION AND DISTRIBUTION SURVEY USING DRONE THERMOGRAPHY
To sustainably manage deer stocks, accurate and consistent assessments and monitoring of numbers and make-up are fundamental.
Ben Harrower, a chartered forester and independent consultant, provided an overview of the use of heat-seeking drones or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in deer work. Part of his portfolio is now undertaking landscape-scale surveys for the FC across England to help it better formulate policy, utilise resources and identify deer risk.
To conduct wildlife counts, traditional established field survey methods have been widely used in the past. Those include field observations of animals on foot or from a manned aircraft, images from fixed onsite locations captured by using camera traps, faecal density counts, sampling with mark–recapture methods, and indirect monitoring methods such as yearly hunting harvest statistics per unit of effort.
Modern-day drones come in assorted shapes and sizes equipped with cameras, laser lights, GPS tracking, altimeters and so forth. Those with thermal cameras have become more readily available, broadening the possibilities for monitoring warm-blooded wildlife.
Fitted with devices that can detect heat sources they can overfly a relatively open site and provide quick and accurate base-line counts of wildlife species.
Thermal imaging relies on animals’ body heat. So an animal will appear as a bright object at thermal infrared wavelengths if its surface temperature is warmer than its surroundings. This makes drone surveys with thermal imaging ideal for monitoring nocturnal and crepuscular species too.
Drones are highly effective for wildlife work and not just ‘boys’ toys’. Heat-seeking drones are suitable for monitoring a wide range of open-habitat or canopy-living species such as many types of deer, hares, beached seals, sea bird colonies and species camouflaged by their cryptic fur or plumage. In North America, they are finding favour for locating lost, culled or injured animals for some hours after incidents whilst the body is still warm.
Over the past decade, the use of drones has taken off as a precise and non-invasive method for surveying wildlife stocks in places that are difficult to monitor by traditional methods or too inaccessible to provide accurate population estimates. Moreover, drones usually cut down the time and labour spent on ground surveys and are a cheaper alternative to manned aerial ones.
While drones equipped with thermal cameras have become more readily available, they can still be expensive – but prices are plummeting. This technology is transforming our understanding of the background cervid population and assists with informing a suitable management plan.
After a coffee, the FC’s deer management priorities in England were championed by David Jam, forestry services national deer adviser.
A DEER MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Back in the summer of 2022, the FC and Defra launched a short, sharp consultancy document which respondents were told had the aim of producing results by the end of that calendar year. What happened to that?
The proposed strategy set out key actions to:
- reduce impacts of deer on the natural environment
- bring the deer population into sustainable numbers that the ecosystem can support without negative effects
- improve understanding of deer populations and their overall impact.
Changes in government and priorities since last summer’s consultation have stalled the appearance of a new document, but we are reliably informed it is on the desk of England’s forestry minster, Trudy Harrison MP, and should go public any day now (if it’s not already circulating by the time you receive this issue of Forestry Journal). The recommendations for a revamped strategy are anticipated to parallel those in the summer of ’22 trawl.
The wide range of proposals encompassed then included:
- Incentives to increase landowner willingness to reduce deer impacts through active and effective management
- Improving the provisions within the 1991 Deer Act to enable more effective and accessible deer management
- Support and provision of advice to the woodland and land management sector
- Developing landscape-scale solutions where deer move across ownership boundaries
- Improving the evidence base and development of a national deer data dashboard
- Improving deer health surveillance
- Supporting the wild venison supply chain to boost traceable supply and consumption
- Increasing sector skills and capacity
- Supporting research evaluation and monitoring.
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Indeed, the conference heard how some points have already been set in motion, such as evidence and data collection, support for deer best practice guidance and securing training for new deer managers within the Forestry Training Fund.
MANAGING DEER FOR A MEMBERSHIP ORGANISATION IN AN URBAN SITUATION
Deer are ever more adapting to live in or frequent urban situations. Muntjac have been present in large gardens and public parks for many years in southern counties and roe and fallow are often regular visitors under the cover of darkness or even in broad daylight.
Many local residents who welcome these cervid visitors up to a point are also members or supporters of the local wildlife trusts. But householders are not always so keen on deer browsing in allotments or eating the prized garden roses and runner beans or causing road traffic accidents.
So it’s a delicate balancing act for membership-based wildlife trusts, as Martin Boxall, deer manager from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, explained in relation to its New Forest reserves.
VENISON ON THE MENU
After a venison lunch – courtesy of Highland Game – Will Oakley from WilloGame, a game-processing enterprise in neighbouring Shropshire, answered questions from the audience on the more hands-on side of processing deer carcasses and the online trade.
Boosting sales of home-grown venison has often been heralded as a means of upping the cull, alleviating the adverse impacts of deer on forestry, agriculture and conservation interests, as well as providing welcome additional local jobs and revenue. But does it or can it work?
David Hooton, deer officer for the eastern region of the FC, led on this topic and the venison working group he chairs. That includes representatives from private forestry, government, shooting, gamekeeping, and the venison supply sectors. The group works with parallel organisations in Scotland to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
This working group aims to get the UK venison market back on track, improving quality and quantity, confidence and traceability.
Forestry minister Trudy Harrison has taken a particular interest in this initiative, and gave a pre-recorded speech to launch and endorse the British Quality Wild Venison Assurance Scheme, which David explained further.
Open to applicants in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the BQWV scheme will ensure a set of audited standards are met throughout the supply chain, from forests, through the processing chain to supermarket shelves. Successful applicants will support the development of a wider, more robust marketplace for British wild venison, which is a sustainable and healthy food source. More information is on the government website.
Recent pilot schemes in NW Lancashire and Devon and Cornwall are putting local venison on the menu, distributing it to food banks, schools, prisons, the armed forces and hospitals, aiming to help combat both the cost-of-living crisis and the deer challenge at the same time.
North of the border, Forestry and Land Scotland put out five-year tenders in December 2021 to supply around 37,000 carcasses annually.
John Thornley, chair of Deer Management Qualifications, had the opportunity to touch on the new Deer Management Certificate (DMC) qualification, aimed at those who organise and oversee deer-management operations.
DEER LICENCING
Dr Rodney F. Calvert is principal adviser on wildlife management for Natural England. He reminded the audience that at present, except for muntjac, wild deer in England are protected by a close season. You can’t shoot them then or at night unless:
- you have a licence
- deer are causing damage and you’re authorised to take action.
You also need a permit from Natural England to capture deer for science, education or relocation. Further pointers are on the government website under ‘deer licences’.
Changes are mooted when the new strategy emerges.
LYNX, A FUTURE REINTRODUCTION?
David Hetherington is the author of The Lynx Lowdown. As the nature network manager with the Cairngorms National Park, he is a leading advocate of bringing back the Labrador-sized Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx).
In Britain, the Eurasian lynx survived longest in Scotland until finally going extinct around 1,300 years ago due to hunting and habitat loss.
There are four species of this cat family in the world. The Eurasian lynx, which is twice as large as its cousins, prefers to live off deer, especially roe, while the other relatives catch smaller quarry such as rabbits and hares.
The natural range of this carnivore spans Europe and into Asia. It is an ‘ambush hunter’, haunting forests and woodland and rugged rocky places where it can surprise its prey.
A common misconception is that this carnivore will diminish the deer stocks and their effects simply by killing and devouring them. But direct predation is only part of their impact. Top predators such as lynx and wolves are key species in ecosystems as they alter their prey’s behaviour through the so called ‘ecology of fear’.
Through faeces, urine and scrapes, lynx leave scent marks that advertise their presence to conspecifics. Potential prey detects that too, which keeps them on the move, helping to avoid overgrazing and allowing other vegetation to come back.
Like most predators, these felines go for the easy targets – skimming off the weak, young, injured or ageing animals and assisting in maintaining a healthy deer population.
Lynx have been reintroduced to much of central and eastern Europe. Populations are recovering in Scandinavia. Scientific studies on the viability of lynx in Britain suggest the Highlands could currently support up to 400 animals.
In England, possibly 50 adults and subadults could find homes in extensive afforested areas such as Kielder, although a trial with six radio-tracked animals was not approved by Natural England.
Then this spring, at the Oxford Farming Conference, the UK’s environment minister poured cold water on any potential plans to release predators such as wolves and lynx in England.
A final lively and probing Q&A session followed, winding up a very successful and promising day.
Watch this space!
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