Martyn Davies has joined the GWCT Advisory team in Scotland as Deer and Forestry Advisor. Hailing originally from Somerset and Cumbria but now based in Moffat, he will be developing the Advisory Service’s consultancy expertise in new areas, supporting the team’s other upland and farmland advisors specifically in areas of habitat and herbivore impact assessment, deer management planning, population dynamics, and woodland and forestry advice, design and planning.
He says: “GWCT advisory services are tailored to the estate, landowner or land agent. This bespoke approach is well suited with both deer and forestry due to the differing landowner objectives.
“I see much of my work across the central belt, the south of Scotland and particularly where deer management is increasingly an issue for and a component of farm and woodland management. These are areas where we need more joined-up thinking and planning, and the Farmer Cluster model promoted by the GWCT provides a suitable approach to tackling deer issues at more landscape scale. Likewise, there are particular issues where the countryside meets the urban fringe but where deer management is often at best unplanned and sporadic and in response to damage to trees and crops or indeed road traffic accidents.
“With regard to forestry and woodland, we will also be giving practical advice on planting and planning. Whilst we have ambitious targets for new tree planting in Scotland in response to the climate emergency, the sector is not without its problems, particularly a range of diseases affecting a number of native and commonly planted species including Scots pine, oak, ash and larch, not to mention herbivore impacts, and undoubtedly in the face of these threats meeting future targets will be a challenge.”
For more information for our Deer and Forestry Services, please contact us on 0131 202 7670 or email scottishadvisory@gwct.org.uk.
I have spoken to Bess at the GWCT about this,
Deer shooting in Scotland at night was legalised on the 1st October 2023. We used to have a deer population of about 150 (1 deer/20 hectares) but since the legalisation of night shooting, this has crashed by about 80%. I am sure this is an unintended consequence of the legislation.
Responsible shooters complete the form and send to the Police and we have no interest in them.
It is the poachers we are interested in. They do not complete the form and do not send it to the police. They do not have permission from the proprietor to shoot on the land and they do not contact the landowner. They have their rifle fitted with a sound moderator to which they have fixed night vision telescopic sights and they shoot everything – male and female deer, young deer and hares. There are no lights. there is no sound. They creep about the countryside in vehicles on small ‘C’ class country roads and spy along woodland edges. They use thermal spotting equipment to first find the live quarry and then to find the carcass. They use the torch on their mobile phones or a head torch to gralloch the animals, to cut off the feet and heads and put the carcass in the back of their vehicle before driving slowly along to the next woodland edge.
Frankly there is a gap in the legislation which is that this equipment should be on the individual’s Firearm Certificate like sound moderators are and which also says what night vision equipment they have, where they are going to use it and that they have the proprietor’s consent.
Please can you contact NatureScot about these problems and ask them what they are going to do about the problems of deer poaching and where the venison is sent after the deer have been shot.