We need big changes in deer management policy and the royals should lead the way
PUBLIC debate about the management of Balmoral estate by the royal family can no longer be ignored (“Issue of the day: Should the Queen rewild Balmoral?”, Vicky Allan,
The Herald, December 22).
Successive governments, expert scientists and voluntary conservation interests have all failed to persuade the royal family to change the way in which Balmoral is managed for trees, deer and grouse. For example, nearly 20 years of government-led voluntary deer control schemes have failed to persuade Balmoral and the neighbouring estates to reduce deer numbers down to ecologically acceptable levels so the natural vegetation can recover from severe overgrazing.
No wonder that a year ago the report of the Scottish Government’s Deer Working Group recommended the Scottish Parliament should instigate a special investigation of the situation at Balmoral and its neighbours. No other part of Scotland was subject to such a recommendation. In other words, Balmoral and its neighbours are amongst the worst estates in Scotland in their approach to deer management and this requires effective intervention at the highest level. Every MSP elected to the Parliament next May needs to be committed to a landuse investigation of such estates.
If members of the royal family want to see the future they should go for a walk on Glenfeshie estate, on the other side of the Cairngorms National Park. Over the last 15 years Glenfeshie’s Danish owner, Anders Polvsen, has demonstrated through effective deer management how to restore montane and forest habitats. On his estate the
Old Caledonian Pinewood is regenerating from the bottom of the glen to the altitudinal limits for tree growth, all achieved without any fencing or planting.
Nevertheless, the royal family has already demonstrated a clear and welcome understanding of the crisis facing the planet through climate change and biodiversity loss. The public debate the royals have stimulated, both in the UK and in distant lands, on these vital issues is impressive. But substantive changes in policy and practice are also needed much closer to home.
The regeneration of the vegetation of the Highlands will make a huge contribution to carbon capture and storage if only red deer populations are managed properly. Balmoral needs to set the standard, persuading other estates to sit up, take note and change direction.
When world leaders gather in
Glasgow in the autumn of 2021 to debate the climate crisis this can be Scotland’s finest contribution – a demonstration of how the natural recovery of degraded landscapes through the control of overgrazing is a key part of climate-change mitigation.
Dave Morris, Kinross.
Rewilding is not a magic solution
VICKY Allan’s Issue Of The Day article makes several inaccurate and wild assertions.
First, she argues muirburn is damaging and destructive. This is simply untrue, as evidenced by recent research commissioned by the Scottish Government that found muirburn provides considerable benefits for a diversity of wildlife, including golden plover, merlin, curlew, whinchat and lesser redpoll.
Secondly, she infers the royal family is somehow obliged to
follow the rewilding agenda if it is to save biodiversity and the planet. The notion that rewilding is “the magical solution” to the climate emergency highlights a fundamental lack of understanding of the complexity of issues that surround land use and ownership in Scotland, and patently disregards the fantastic work undertaken by many sporting estates to sequester carbon, protect peatlands, promote wildlife and create jobs. Ross Ewing, political and press officer (Scotland), The British Association for Shooting and Conservation, Scottish Centre, Dunkeld.