Forest of Dean Boar - Hunt Sabs

ChesterP

Well-Known Member
Heard this story on R2 today. Apparently, a group of sabs has been interfering with high seats (dramatically described as "Marksmen's Towers"!) and the locks to access them as well as stealing baits in an attempt to prevent shooters carrying out their lawful business in the Forest of Dean.

They had one on the Radio who denied that he had anything to do with some of the disgusting tactics used which incliuded spreading faeces on/in locks.

For balance they interviewed a boar hunter and guide but one that had nothing to do with the Forest cull. He made some good points including that of rebuffing arguments against injecting FoD Boar with contraceptives on grounds of cost (never mind the impracticality!) and said that numbers need controlling as they triple year on year.

The sab had no real answers for him but him and his ilk will carry on acting illegally if it means protecting the boar. He argued that shooting in the forest was dangerous as loads of people wander about on prw's but handily omitted the facts that high seat locations were carefully selected to ensure safe shots could be taken, something missed by the guide which did cause a little head-scratching.

Hopefully the police were listening in and can bring charges of aggravated trespass and criminal damage charges against any sabs caught preventing hunters going about their lawful business.....but will they?
 
I thought all available Sabs were busy disrupting the badger cull at the moment.
 
I`m intrigued ... The Forest of Dean is huge, gigantic, mahoosive. How did they find the high seats in the first instance?
I`ve been there a few times now and I`ve never `stumbled` across one.
 
read the article on line, which only had the Sabs point of view.....never come across any one who claimed to love nature but knew so little about it!!! the article was a real shocker.
 
View attachment 88721
I`m intrigued ... The Forest of Dean is huge, gigantic, mahoosive. How did they find the high seats in the first instance?
I`ve been there a few times now and I`ve never `stumbled` across one.

This is a google maps image of a woods near me. Not hard to see where the highseats are located.

Edit: Not sure where the bottom image came from as has nothing to do with the google maps image!
 
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If you are involved, be careful where you mention it.
There is a women in a local store where people buy dog and animal food, along with fishing bait, who is feeding information to the people trying to stop badger culling.
 
If you are involved, be careful where you mention it.
There is a women in a local store where people buy dog and animal food, along with fishing bait, who is feeding information to the people trying to stop badger culling.

Great, get in there and spin her a tall tale.

"yes, big cull tonight in Yorkshire. Hundreds of snipers out up there. DeFRA have kept it all hushed up to keep the antis busy down south, you know... Shouldn't have mentioned it really...."
 
This from the FC website shows how the numbers in FOD have grown and how few, by comparison have actually been culled.

The following table charts the change in various figures since 2008.
YearEstimate Population Target PopulationCull Achieved
2008/9 100 - 150 90 38
2009/10 150 90 62
2010/11 200 - 250 90 122
2011/12 300 - 350 90 150
2012/13 450 - 500 400 100
2013/14 535 400 135
2014/15 819 400 361
2015/16 1018 400 543
2016/17 1562 400 492

I think the average man / woman in the street would have no problem with the cull given the numbers above. Boar population thriving, cull just keeping the numbers in check in line with the available habitat.
 
This from the FC website shows how the numbers in FOD have grown and how few, by comparison have actually been culled.

The following table charts the change in various figures since 2008.
YearEstimate Population Target PopulationCull Achieved
2008/9 100 - 150 90 38
2009/10 150 90 62
2010/11 200 - 250 90 122
2011/12 300 - 350 90 150
2012/13 450 - 500 400 100
2013/14 535 400 135
2014/15 819 400 361
2015/16 1018 400 543
2016/17 1562 400 492

I think the average man / woman in the street would have no problem with the cull given the numbers above. Boar population thriving, cull just keeping the numbers in check in line with the available habitat.

you won't keep numbers in check lets see what the figures are next year and then the following year numbers will just increase, atb wayne
 
In 2012/2013 when they realised they were nowhere near their target population the quadrupled the target from 90 to 400, and now the population is over 1500 I wonder when they will adjust their figures again

they could get closer to their targets if they opened up the shooting at reasonable prices to stalkers but they will never do that as they would have to be accompanied so they still had control, then they would be chatging fees for the guide and expecting shooters to buy the meat, taking it out of the range of lots of shooters
Cheers
Ray
 
In 2012/2013 when they realised they were nowhere near their target population the quadrupled the target from 90 to 400, and now the population is over 1500 I wonder when they will adjust their figures again

they could get closer to their targets if they opened up the shooting at reasonable prices to stalkers but they will never do that as they would have to be accompanied so they still had control, then they would be chatging fees for the guide and expecting shooters to buy the meat, taking it out of the range of lots of shooters
Cheers
Ray
It would be quicker for the rangers to do the job themselves.
And the guides/rangers would expect a tip.
 
This from the FC website shows how the numbers in FOD have grown and how few, by comparison have actually been culled.

The following table charts the change in various figures since 2008.
YearEstimate Population Target PopulationCull Achieved
2008/9 100 - 150 90 38
2009/10 150 90 62
2010/11 200 - 250 90 122
2011/12 300 - 350 90 150
2012/13 450 - 500 400 100
2013/14 535 400 135
2014/15 819 400 361
2015/16 1018 400 543
2016/17 1562 400 492

I think the average man / woman in the street would have no problem with the cull given the numbers above. Boar population thriving, cull just keeping the numbers in check in line with the available habitat.

Doesn't look like they are being kept in check though, does it.
 
estimating boar numbers can be tricky... if the weather is good they will breed all year. Seeing as this year it looks like we will be skipping winter altogether, the crocuses are flowering, my bees are bringing in honey...boar numbers will explode.
 
estimating boar numbers can be tricky... if the weather is good they will breed all year. Seeing as this year it looks like we will be skipping winter altogether, the crocuses are flowering, my bees are bringing in honey...boar numbers will explode.

Won't there be a moderating effect because of the habitat destruction, feed loss, etc. due to the catastrophic fires?
 
So how many Boar can the FOD accommodate and be in balance with the environment?

Depends who you ask. I bet a farmer will say a while lot less then a hunter who will probably say less than an anti hunter and an ecologist will probably say something different again.
 
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