Lowland Deer Panel - Meeting Notes

Seventh meeting of Lowland Deer Panel

Friday 23 November 2018
Battleby, Perth

Present: 

Peter Watson (wildlife management consultant; Chair), Mark Wrightham (SNH; Secretary), Steve Albon (James Hutton Institute), Eirwen Hopwood (West Lothian Council), Jochen Langbein (wildlife management consultant; by teleconference), David Quarrell (lowland deer manager), Karen Ramoo (Scottish Land & Estates), Donald Fraser & Alastair MacGugan (SNH; technical support).

Apologies: 

Jane Rosegrant (Borders Forest Trust).

Action points (AP) are noted in italics.

Note of last meeting and matters arising

The note of the previous meeting was approved; all action points were discharged.

The Chair updated the panel on recent discussions with the Deer Management Round Table, noting that SNH had clarified that the panel’s recommendations should focus on the five key questions in the panel’s terms of reference. The need for a focused approach was underlined by discussion within the panel.

Peter Watson also provided an update on recent liaison with the independent Deer Working Group (DWG), which had noted that the panel could provide comments to the group regarding wider issues that had been raised by lowland stakeholders (which need not be confined to the topics covered by the panel’s formal recommendations). This discussion had also highlighted some areas on which the group would particularly welcome views from the panel. The Chair had agreed to share the next draft of the panel’s report with the group as soon as this was available.

There had been considerable internal discussion between the Chair and David Quarrell  regarding stalker training (based on the Deer Stalking Certificate qualification) and access to the National Forest Estate (NFE) for recreational deer stalkers, and no agreement had been reached. Peter Watson had therefore suggested that discussion of the panel’s recommendations at the present meeting should be chaired by Steve Albon.

Finalising the panel’s recommendations 

In chairing this part of the meeting, Steve Albon reaffirmed the need for recommendations to focus on the panel’s terms of reference and suggested that these should be distilled down to one per question in the panel’s remit, which would confer greater emphasis on each recommendation. He also highlighted the need to agree the draft recommendations before finalising the supporting text, and the panel worked through these in turn, referring to all of the panel’s previous discussion and editing on screen.

Discussion explored various issues including the range of potential approaches to collaborative deer management and the data that would be needed to support this process. The panel also explored the triggers that might be needed to initiate action under various existing statutory mechanisms. The need to focus on action that SNH would be well placed to implement was clearly noted.

AP1: SNH to provide further information about section 10 regulatory process as used in the Carse of Stirling.

The panel did not reach complete agreement on the scope of its recommendations. David Quarrell felt strongly that the panel should make recommendations regarding training and access to the NFE for recreational deer stalkers, on the basis that these were necessary to promote inclusive access to stalking. The general view within the panel was, however, that these topics were not sufficiently linked to its remit and that it would be more appropriate to refer to these views in the text of the report and highlight them to the DWG.

AP2: Chair to write to DWG highlighting various points noted by the panel, including training and access to the NFE for recreational deer stalkers.

There was also some more general discussion of the remainder of the draft report, which noted a number of points including:

• General agreement with the current loose definition of “lowlands”, which was generally taken to comprise areas not covered by upland-style Deer Management Groups.
• Some discussion of issues and definitions relating to urban deer management, with a broad view that the main differences from other lowland areas may lie in the distribution of management effort, reflecting the differing population dynamics of urban deer.
• The panel agreed definitions of the key terms “deer manager” and “deer stalker” to include in the report.

Process to finalise report

Members discussed the further action needed to finalise the panel’s report.

AP3: Secretary to revise section 2 of report, and Peter Watson/Steve Albon to revise section 3 and recommendations, in light of discussion.

AP4: All panel members to forward full citations for relevant literature sources referred to in report to Secretary.

AP5: Chair/Secretary to recirculate complete draft to panel members for final comment by e-mail, aiming to sign off report by Xmas.

The Secretary noted that this would be the last meeting of the panel (although discussion would continue by e-mail to finalise the report), and thanked members for the considerable time, effort and expertise they had contributed to the project over the last year.

Sixth meeting of Lowland Deer Panel

Wednesday 24 October 2018
Battleby, Perth

Present:

Peter Watson (wildlife management consultant; Chair), Mark Wrightham (SNH; Secretary), Jochen Langbein (wildlife management consultant), David Quarrell (lowland deer manager), Karen Ramoo (Scottish Land & Estates), Jane Rosegrant (Borders Forest Trust), Donald Fraser & Jamie Hammond (SNH; technical support).

Apologies:

Steve Albon (James Hutton Institute), Eirwen Hopwood (West Lothian Council).

Action points (AP) are noted in italics.

Note of last meeting and matters arising

The note of the previous meeting was approved with minor additions and amendments. All action points were discharged. It was agreed that the present meeting could not easily be minuted in detail as it would largely consist of page by page discussion of the latest draft report.

The Secretary noted the need to establish new communication channels with the Deer Working Group following the death of the previous DWG Chair.

AP1: Secretary to confirm revised contact details for liaison between Panel Chair and Deer Working Group.

Discussion of draft report

The meeting largely focused on editorial comments on the latest draft of the Panel’s report. Comments on section 2 (“Issues considered by the Panel”) included specific text changes and suggestions for additional data and other content, such as case studies, for inclusion.  More significant changes included:

• moving more detailed technical content on deer impacts on the natural environment to an annex;
• addition of further data on Deer-Vehicle Collisions (DVCs) and a possible case study;
• additional text on deer-related antisocial behaviour, and;
• further reference to Wild Deer: a National Approach (WDNA).

Section 3 (“Conclusions and recommendations”) was less well-developed at this stage and discussion noted various editorial points alongside a more general need to sharpen the recommendations to ensure these are SMART, and to separately identify those which related to particular lowland areas such as the Central Belt. The Panel also recognised the need to focus on action that could in practice be undertaken by SNH.

AP2: Panel members to provide further comments on section 3 by Friday 2 November.

AP3: Chair and Secretary to incorporate comments in a revised draft for further input from Panel members.

Process to finalise report

Panel members discussed the further action needed to finalise their report, agreeing that a further provisional meeting should be arranged to allow face to face discussion, if needed, of a more advanced draft.

Next meeting

Friday, 23 November, Battleby (provisional; this meeting was subsequently confirmed)