I’m now a bit closer to knowing the intentions of the managers regarding the red deer on the Eastern Moors. Apparently the rumour I had heard that there was an imminent cull planned are false, although I would be interested to know how it originated. Some of the conservation workers employed by PDNPA may be as likely as SWT to tell people whatever they think may be believed.
There have been attempts to count the deer over recent years on Bigmoor and numbers according to EMP were 20-30 in 2004. Five years later there are said to have been 146 but in the following years down to 126. This suggests a decline in population unless they moved about and were absent for the count or some other deficiencies in the counting technique. At any rate the official story is that numbers are not going up at the moment. Four deer were killed some six years ago after complaints from householders but there’s no intention to repeat this. Now the policy is to leave them unless they become a problem or numbers go much higher. This goes with factoring in their presence as part of their grazing management agenda by removing sheep and putting cattle on Bigmoor.
I’m of course resistant to the idea of ‘utilising’ deer for managing the moors which badly need a good dose of benign neglect after all those years of over grazing and over management. The deer do not belong to anyone so my view is nobody has the right to cull, kill or manage them. I don’t expect farmers to understand that (though some enlightened ones do) but I expect conservation workers to appreciate the complex issues.
We still are left with the statement in the Guiding Management Principles.
And that means scrutiny and critical evaluation of everything in their plans is vital.
There have been attempts to count the deer over recent years on Bigmoor and numbers according to EMP were 20-30 in 2004. Five years later there are said to have been 146 but in the following years down to 126. This suggests a decline in population unless they moved about and were absent for the count or some other deficiencies in the counting technique. At any rate the official story is that numbers are not going up at the moment. Four deer were killed some six years ago after complaints from householders but there’s no intention to repeat this. Now the policy is to leave them unless they become a problem or numbers go much higher. This goes with factoring in their presence as part of their grazing management agenda by removing sheep and putting cattle on Bigmoor.
I’m of course resistant to the idea of ‘utilising’ deer for managing the moors which badly need a good dose of benign neglect after all those years of over grazing and over management. The deer do not belong to anyone so my view is nobody has the right to cull, kill or manage them. I don’t expect farmers to understand that (though some enlightened ones do) but I expect conservation workers to appreciate the complex issues.
We still are left with the statement in the Guiding Management Principles.
And that means scrutiny and critical evaluation of everything in their plans is vital.
No comments:
Post a Comment