Population "Explosion"

Some will have heard the item on yesterday morning's Radio 4 Today programme about a population explosion of wild deer. Several things need to be said to balance the kind of febrile impression always created when the media run a story. First the native deer in this country are Roe and Red. A number of introduced species such as the Muntjac are spreading around the country. The largest numbers of Red Deer are in Scotland and in the South West of England. If we go back to the Middle Ages deer were far more important in everyday life. A visit to nearby Hardwick Hall will show this with hundreds of images of Red Deer around the building and friezes with hunting scenes.

The return of deer to Blacka should be welcomed as it fits well with the wildness of the place. Anyway the small numbers involved (only two hinds) are no excuse for anyone getting trigger happy. As for road accidents they certainly happen. I hope nobody is suggesting that deer should be culled because they cause accidents. Speed limits are a much more acceptable way of preventing accidents. I frequently see stray sheep on Hathersage Road. Perhaps they should be culled? Or maybe the speeding motorists?

Also it will not be lost on Blacka's regular walkers that SWT want their cattle on the moor to eat young trees and that deer are nature's way of doing this with no need for a management plan, barbed wire fences, awkward gates and eroded paths. The control freaks of Natural England won't have it though. There's a difference between deer grazing and cattle grazing says NE. And they want the landscape according to their blueprint. God help us all.

Link to the radio item here. I love that "Dear (sic) Initiative" (now corrected). Link to them here. But how depressing that there's always somebody or some group popping up wanting to manage something. As an advanced species we can't manage our economy we can't manage our aggression or our crime rate but we seem to have faith that we can set up agencies to control nature. Hmm.