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<\/a><\/a>He is referring to a recent Scottish Government consultation on the most radical changes to deer management in living memory.<\/p>\n
It contains proposals that would rip up the previously collaborative approach to deer management and, instead, demand reductions in deer numbers. Failure by gamekeepers to carry out culls, ordered by regulator NatureScot, could lead to a fine of \u00a340,000 and a jail term of up to three months \u2013 or both.<\/p>\n
NatureScot could also bill an estate owner if a third party has to do the cull.<\/p>\n
Deer managers have reacted with undisguised fury to the idea of these Deer Management Nature Restoration Orders (DMNROs), branding them a \u2018draconian measure\u2019 which blows the principle of voluntary deer management \u2018clean out of the water\u2019.<\/p>\n
Opponents have threatened to take legal action to halt them if necessary, arguing they could effectively let NatureScot go onto a private estate and impose a cull based on a purely subjective and scientifically undefined need for \u2018nature restoration and enhancement\u2019.<\/p>\n
The Scottish Gamekeepers Association left the consultation entirely after claiming the orders could force members to take part in the culling and disembowelling of heavily pregnant hind deer due to proposed changes to the female deer season.<\/p>\n
It warned it could damage members\u2019 mental health and contravene their human rights and, to push home their point, it recently posted distressing images on social media of an almost full-term foetus that was recovered from its freshly shot mother.<\/p>\n
T O seasoned observers such as Mr Frost, 48, this increasingly bitter standoff is symptomatic of concerted efforts by an urban-centric government to wrest control of the countryside from those who live and work there. And it\u2019s all being done under the flag of environmentalism.<\/p>\n
\u2018You certainly hear through the grapevine that there are some very disgruntled people in the countryside \u2013 that this is the thin end of the wedge,\u2019 he said. \u2018Deer management for the last ten years or so has gone through these different reviews and there is a sense of the Government constantly shifting the goalposts. They can\u2019t seem to decide what they want.<\/p>\n \u2018I don\u2019t think they totally get how the countryside works.\u2019<\/p>\n He added: \u2018Where intervention is justified, I am totally for it.<\/p>\n \u2018But a lot of the sector feels this is a step too far. It\u2019s creating unnecessary tension.\u2019<\/p>\n That tension has been bubbling under for some years between shooting estates and agencies and charities focused on rewilding upland areas.<\/p>\n It has reached a point where conflict mediators, more used to working in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, have been brought in to try to make peace between stalkers, environmentalists and science\/policy experts.<\/p>\n Father-of-three Mr Frost, a second-generation stalker who has been part of that forum, said it had been working towards common goals through dialogue but warned: \u2018DMNROs could undo a lot of that good work.\u2019 He added: \u2018We had a visit from biodiversity minister Lorna Slater at Glenfalloch and we offered to take her out on the hill for a day and show her what deer management involves. But she hasn\u2019t taken us up on that, unfortunately.\u2019<\/p>\n The Greens minister, who is leading the consultation, has also twice rejected an invitation by Tory MSP and landowner Edward Mountain to a deer stalking \u2018fact-finding\u2019 event despite her strong advocacy of the culls.<\/p>\n Mr Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, had urged Ms Slater to take the opportunity to meet those with a \u2018deep knowledge of the subject\u2019 and to \u2018actively participate in a culling operation\u2019. But Ms Slater replied that she already had a \u2018full understanding\u2019 of deer management.<\/p>\n Mr Mountain, who is convener of Holyrood\u2019s net zero, energy and transport committee, said: \u2018It seems Lorna Slater is happy for there to be blood on the hillsides but not on her hands.<\/p>\n \u2018I invited her to spend the day in the countryside with me and some deer stalkers for two main reasons. Firstly, so she could see and hear for herself first hand some of these very genuine concerns, but also to correct some of the arguments she and her government have put forward that are not accurate.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s regrettable that she has declined this invitation twice, and perhaps it tells you everything you need to know about this Scottish Government. It\u2019s always beneficial for Edinburgh-based ministers to get out of their comfort zone and see what rural Scotland is actually like, especially when they are making such important decisions.\u2019<\/p>\n That strength of feeling was reflected in January when rural workers protested in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, against a future vision for the Cairngorms National Park due to be unveiled by Ms Slater and First Minister Humza Yousaf. The politicians cancelled at the last minute due to Storm Isha but demonstrators in wellies and stalking gear held up placards saying \u2018rural workers make the park\u2019, \u2018don\u2019t greenwash away rural workers\u2019 jobs\u2019, and \u2018stop slaughtering our iconic deer\u2019.<\/p>\n Deirdre Falconer, regional co-ordinator from the Grampian Moorland Group, told Farmers Weekly: \u2018The project includes plans to spend \u00a39million on visitor infrastructure, \u00a319million on peatland restoration, trees and river restoration, and a couple of million on wellbeing.<\/p>\n \u2018But there is no money for housing or anything to address the real issues that are in the park. The policies that are coming out of the Scottish Government are literally eroding the way of life for people living in these rural areas. It is like an attack on the countryside.\u2019 The Managing Deer for Climate and Nature consultation comes hard on the heels of the Scottish parliament\u2019s passing of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill last month, which makes it compulsory for estates where grouse are shot to obtain government-issued licences which will run for up to five years.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the controlled burning of heather and use of some traps will be subject to separate licensing regimes. It is, perhaps, understandable that estate owners and staff feel under fire.<\/p>\n What makes life trickier is the amount a deer is worth can vary wildly. Deer shot in season can earn landowners up to \u00a31,000 per stag and many times that for accommodation and catering, which feeds into the local economy. They may only receive \u00a350 for a carcass shot by stalkers out of season.<\/p>\n It means people like Mr Frost can shoot 100 of Glenfalloch\u2019s 700-strong deer population through the year but struggle to cover even his basic costs such as wages, fuel, equipment, heating, lighting and special copper bullets now required to shoot the animals.<\/p>\n Furthermore, with the price of venison around \u00a31.80 per kilo, flooding the market with extra meat will do nothing to prop it up, assuming capacity could be found to cope with the extra supply.<\/p>\n Ms Slater frequently touts the headline figure that Scotland\u2019s total deer population has doubled to \u2018around one million\u2019 as a major concern, even though the figure is an estimate which NatureScot urges should be treated with caution. Only red deer are counted annually \u2013 their numbers have trebled to around 400,000 since the 1960s. The rest \u2013 up to 300,000 roe deer, 25,000 sika and at least 8,000 fallow deer \u2013 are just educated guesses and numbers have stabilised in the past two decades.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s not just about population numbers though, herbivores like deer can have a detrimental impact on our natural environment,\u2019 the minister lectured in response to Mr Mountain\u2019s invitation. \u2018I want to ensure that we manage our deer populations so that they form a part of a functioning ecosystem, in a way that maximises the benefits they bring as part of our wonderful Scottish landscape.\u2019<\/p>\n Yet there\u2019s a delicate balance to be struck with deer numbers too, argues the Association of Deer Management Groups (ADMG), ensuring they remain within that narrow band where there are sufficient beasts to preserve an estate\u2019s profitability but not too many to become a nuisance.<\/p>\n Managers fear the kind of widespread heavy culling presaged by the consultation will damage that fragile equilibrium. \u2018It\u2019s always the upland deer range that bears the brunt,\u2019 said Tom Turnbull, ADMG chair, who runs the Strome Estate in Argyll. \u2018That\u2019s because the 50 or so deer management groups, with published deer management plans, are undertaking habitat monitoring and in almost all cases already reducing deer numbers. DMGs are an easy target for the government to focus on and turn the screw,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n The ADMG believes the suggestion that estates could not appeal a diktat from NatureScot was particularly disturbing. \u2018If it goes ahead it will almost certainly end up in the courts,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n Another worry is no mention of grants to help out with the additional culling. Influential \u2018eco-landowners\u2019, looking to rewild or preserve the remnants of the ancient Caledonian Forest, have been lavished with grants and tax breaks, as the SNP looks at covering 21 per cent of Scotland in forest by 2032.<\/p>\n