Deer Management Strategic Board minutes: March 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Donald Henderson - SG ND (Chair)
• Robyn Chapman - SG ND (Secretariat)
• Hugh Dignon - SG ND
• Donald Fraser - NatureScot 
• Jamie Hammond - NatureScot
• Alan Hampson - Scottish Forestry 
• Simon Hodgson - Forestry and Land Scotland
• Simon Jones - LLTNPA
• Grant Moir - CNPA
• Paul Roberts - NatureScot 
• Bruce Sewell - Forestry and Land Scotland
• Brodie Wilson - SG ND

Apologies

• Robbie Kernahan - NatureScot
• John Kerr - SG ARE

Items and actions

Welcome & Review                              

Donald Henderson welcomed everyone to the meeting. The Board had a morning site visit at Mugdock Country Park with a discussion focussing on Lowland Deer Management in peri-urban settings. Deer management in the Park was particularly challenging with over 80k visitors pa. The Board found the discussion engaging and valuable.

The group agreed the minutes from the meeting of 11 December 2023 and discussed outstanding action points from previous meetings.

Vision statement  – Scottish Forestry queried whether the statement should be closer in alignment with that of the Common Ground Forum. However the Board concluded that their vision statement sought to capture deer management across the whole of Scotland and not just the Upland sector. AP (SG/NS) – Sense check the Strategic Deer Board Vision against that of the Common Ground Forum.

Herbivore Management – Scottish Government colleagues are progressing with the action points on herbivore management. There was a discussion on the extent to which we could expect funding for deer reduction programmes under the new agriculture support programme. It was agreed that the Board would pursue the issue further with colleagues involved in the design of the programme. AP (NS/CNPA) – Draft proposal to be drawn up based on inclusion of deer management within new framework.

AP (SG) – Robyn Chapman to publish the minutes of that meeting on the Scottish Government website now that they are agreed.

 

Agenda Item 3 – Community Deer Management

NatureScot initiated the discussion by summarising the community deer management perspectives set out by NatureScot and FLS.

NatureScot highlighted the Community Deer Management pilot being undertaken at Creag Megaidh. This has been successful in increasing deer management capacity at a local community level.

The Board noted that the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity is very keen to increase local community access and community deer management can serve as an opportunity to develop skills and training at a local level.

Some concerns were raised by FLS on previous history with recreational stalkers not being able to keep on top of deer control on sporting lets, and also increased workload in managing recreational stalker access. FLS were however willing to look at new models provided that these were complementary to their business plan.. NatureScot flagged an issue in the use of the terminology ‘recreational’ stalkers given the individuals partaking in current models are suitably trained in deer management and would be assisting culls and a local level.

The Board noted that there is a large underused resource of certified stalkers and representative organisations were keen to explore more options for their members gaining access to stalking on public land. like British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), British Deer Society (BDS) and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) would be very keen to implement a model like this.

AP – (NS/FLS) The Board agreed to continue to consider different community deer management models and agreed to have a further paper discussed at the September meeting.

Agenda Item 4 - Consultation Update & Stakeholder Engagement

Brodie Wilson updated the Board on the progress of the consultation which launched on 5 January 2024 and is due to close on 29 March. Brodie is due to attend the ADMG Meeting on 13 March and will update stakeholders on the consultation and answer their queries then.

The Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity is due to attend DMRT on 26 March her slot will focus on the consultation.

Paul Roberts shared the stakeholder tracker in advance and notified the Board of the one to one meetings that had been held with stakeholders.

 

Agenda Item 5 – Lowland Deer Pilot

Hugh Dignon presented the paper on the Lowland Deer Pilot which had been circulated to the Board in advance of the meeting. The aim of the pilot is to incentivise deer management in the lowlands of Scotland where we know there is limited data on deer culls.

The Board broadly agreed with the recommendation of a lowland pilot with the caveat that it would be more useful if the location was more focused, in order not to dilute the impacts of a likely limited budget..  It was noted that a number of local authorities have a policy against culling deer and this would need to be taken  into account in selecting focus areas. .

NatureScot colleagues suggested an alternative pilot could focus on Sika deer management in forest areas.

AP (SG) – Colleagues agreed to provide an oral update on the progress of the pilot at the June meeting.

Agenda Item 6 - Strategic Deer Board Work Plan

Brodie Wilson provided an update on the suggestion of a Strategic Deer Board Work Plan. The Plan would entail drafting a report on the progress of the Board which would include:

• How the Board is working;
• How the workstreams are working;
• Progress over the last 3 years since the Board’s creation;
• A forward look over the next 3 years

The Board were supportive of the suggestion noting that was important to engage with stakeholders such as SE LINK and the ADMG so they can help to support what the Board are taking forward.

AOB

AP – Legislation Workstream – Paul Roberts and Bruce Sewell requested a timeline for submission of the BRIA they agreed to produce for deer management legislative proposals.

The next meeting is due to be held on 5 June 2024. Potential locations include Glen Heighton in Peebles.