Roseanna Cunningham has been busy and has also announced the details of the independent deer working group. Their role is to recommend changes to ensure effective deer management in Scotland that safeguards public interests and promotes the sustainable management of wild deer. The group consists of
Unfortunately, they aren't due to report until April 2019. However, the appointment
of Simon Pepper as Chair should ensure a balanced set of recommendations and,
hopefully, further existing efforts to reduce the excessive numbers.
Following their dressing down in Holyrood, SNH has updated its deer action plan. You will remember that it was told "to take a tougher approach to non-cooperative landowners" and "to test the existing legislation". Well, you would hardly know this from reading the updated plan, which doesn't fill you with confidence. I hope that I am wrong, but.... I suspect that we will have to wait until the Working Group reports back in a year's time.
Given that it will take time to implement any recommendations, it looks as though too many deer are going to keep munching too much for a long time to come.
The Guardian had an interesting article on deer culling recently. Although, there's nothing new, it's worth reading.
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