Farmers do pay for pest control (moles, rats, rabbits, foxes etc. Even deer).
Tell me again why public access stalking isn’t a viable option
- Thread starter Rake Aboot
- Start date
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
Or just leave them there?
I can shoot a lot more deer in a day if I don’t have to extract.
I personally have absolutely no problem with this, and think that there are contexts where it’s absolutely the best option. I’ve never actually done it, but my father (who has a professional ecologist) did it several times in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Botswana. It’s just another tool in the box.
But around here you might as well propose offering up children to be cooked and eaten as a tasty and nutritious snack!
HonestJohn
Well-Known Member
Believe it or not, a farmer asked me ‘how much’ to manage his deer. Clearly I offered it ‘gratis’! It will never happen again
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
Things are changing, and about time too.
Let’s be honest, the increase in deer numbers happened on our watch, if we’re going to get numbers down we’re going to have to change the way we operate.
Public access to stalk is one tool, night shooting and no closed seasons are another.
HonestJohn
Well-Known Member
I like the idea on public land, but let’s just be honest, it’s probably never going to happen, so unless it’s pushed by a large organisation to government, we are really just wasting time discussing it.
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
And to be honest we don’t really have “public land”. All land in the UK is privately owned and managed. Even land that is “government owned” belongs to the MoD or Forestry and Land Scotland etc which are Government organisations and they may or may not allow public access to them.
There is “crown land” but this belongs to the “Crown” ie the monarch.
Then you have “commons”. These are common land which are jointly owned by commoners - usually those who live in properties close to the common and to which are attached “commoner’s rights”.
No, that's incorrect.
Commoners have rights to the common (for grazing etc) but they don't own it. Not even jointly. Usually the common is owned by Lord Somebody, or the Church, or the Crown.
Or, these days, the National Trust, or Welsh Water, or the RSPB or similar organisation
The big snows in 2010 killed hundreds of deer in the area of the estate in question. Under windblown trees around the forest edge and behind bolders in the open groups of up to 20 animals at a time perished. They could be found in spring after the snow melted. Hmm the smell was so pungent it was more a taste. Despite the great losses it appears the deer numbers have recovered relatively quickly for such a bleak area and are high enough to cause problems again.
HonestJohn
Well-Known Member
ARE the deer on said estate really causing problems?
Well this is the key question.
I would be entirely unsurprised if NS has completely failed to actually do a habitat survey. Or, if they have, any half competent ecologist could tear it to bits in 5 minutes.
Its a bit bleak and exposed up there. If your green and leafy chances of remaining un-eaten are slim. To compound the problem things grow slowly. 10 Yr old conifer could still be below 2m tall. That's a lot of cold dark nights to remain uneaten. Given the numbers of deer that died 2010 then the holding capacity of the ground was well exceeded at that point. The small green mossy things the boffins are interested in on the SSSI grow very slowly and any intrest by any herbivore would be very harmful.
I was hunting in NZ 20 odd years ago and a hunter was shot and killed by another hunter, who saw movement in cover.
Out of interest, we noted that orange doesn't show up in dappled sunlight, nor does it stop a bullet!
The current system in the UK doesn't work, everyone is pulling in different directions. Remove the concept of "sporting rights" from the land and implement a national system for effective wildlife management, it works very well in Romania, everyone can participate and it costs very little.
CH
No thank you!
As a landowner myself, I'd much rather have the sporting rights in hand, so I can decide who shoots on my land, when they shoot, what they shoot at and indeed whether any shooting takes place at all.
My land, my choice.
I have previously been in a position of owning land where I did not have control of the shooting and it was utter hell.
Never again.
Very communist of you, private property is essential to a free society.
jthyttin
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't say it works well, based on previous explanation.
- creates a ton of useless govenrment jobs
- participants have to pay considerably to join (compared to net salary etc)
- land is stripped of rights that usually belong to the owner (compared to rest of Europe)
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