Deer Management

General Information

The project will bring together in a final report current information on deer management in the Northern Periphery areas of Scotland, Norway and Finland. The project addresses two main issues:

• Development work performed by each partner, supported by information from other project partners;
• Dissemination of results among partners during project period, by preliminary reports and study visits. Final dissemination of results by an open conference and by a concluding report. Follow-up activities will be emphasised by participants and their collaborating units.

Project organisation and management

The main joint action within the project is "Identification and exchange of best practice in deer management among partner countries". The main objectives and challenges are to provide information to each of the partners on experiences, R&D, methods etc. from other partners, in order to facilitate their further activities. For example, Scottish approaches to collating information on deer numbers will be of use to their Norwegian partner project, while existing Norwegian strategies for raising local income and employment by developing tourist-based hunting will be of value to the other partners. The co-ordinator responsible for this main action will be Dr John Milne, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Scotland.

The project is divided into 7 sub-actions, with the partners assuming responsibility for 3 or 4 sub-actions. Each sub-action has one or two innovative aspects. The participants have chosen sub-actions such that they will benefit to the greatest extent from collaboration with the other partners during the project. This strengthens the collaborative aspect and contributes to cost reduction in the development work. As a whole, the sub-actions will cover the main topics for deer management in the NP-area, and will form a basis for exchange of results among partners. The approach has already been thoroughly examined in workshops between the partners.

Sub-action 1: Develop simple methods of monitoring winter-browsing, deer utilisation of winter habitat, and damage to trees.
Background: The uncontrolled increase in deer numbers that the countries have in common, causes undesirable damage to the forest, poor population performance among deer, and probably also negative long-term effects on biodiversity.
Objective: To develop an early-warning system for over-optimal deer numbers, to be used by wildlife authorities and landowners.

Sub-action 2: Develop methods for monitoring how forestry practice may be adapted in order to improve the winter management of deer.
Background: The way that forestry management practice influences quality of deer habitat could be better explored in Northern Periphery woodlands.
Objective: An improvement of land management guidelines to be used by landowners, extension services and local authorities.

Sub-action 3: Analyse on a district scale, what could be the optimal balance of timber production and hunting, in economic terms within a biodiversity framework.
Background: Both timber and deer are of economic importance, but too little is known about evaluating and achieving the optimal balance between them.
Objective: Provide information on above to wildlife and forestry authorities and landowners.

Sub-action 4: Develop tools for improving the regional development of deer hunting.
Background: Results of sub-actions 1 and 2, together with forestry management plans, provide better tools both for timber production and deer population planning.
Objective: Long-term woodland planning, planning of tourism at a regional level.

Sub-action 5: Increase the economic benefits associated with deer management - by developing a tourism and sporting strategy and undertaking a review of current venison marketing techniques in use in the study area.

Sub-action 6: Establish a baseline of current research on the likely economic impact of deer activities on forest and woodland.
Review previous and current research, published literature, and unpublished information and records. The likely outputs will be a widely accessible database of references and supporting literature.

Sub-action 7: Inform landowners, hunters and others on the importance of a long-term balance between deer numbers and available food. Develop tourism-based hunting of deer.

Sub-actions 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be carried out in Norway, with Skogeierforeninga Nord (Forest Owner's Association, North) as the lead unit.
Sub-actions 5, 6 and 7 will be carried out in Scotland, with the lead unit the Deer Commisssion of Scotland.

National project organisation:

Scotland: The Scottish partnership is the Deer Commission of Scotland (Lead Partner in Scotland) and the Forestry Commission. During the partnership, the following organisations will be involved:

• Forestry Commission Forestry Research Agency
• Macaulay Land Use Research Institute
• Thurso College of Further Education
• Local estate owners and landowners
• The association of Deer Management Groups
• Local deer management groups

Norway: Skogeierforeninga Nord (Forest Owner's Association, North) will lead. A steering committee of 9 has been established: 2 members from the forest owner's organisation, two from the county governor's office (one from the Dept. Forestry, one from the Dept. Environment). One member represents the Forestry Department of the University College of Agriculture and Forestry of Norway, and the remaining three members represent the three local communities where the project activities will take place. Reference groups, representing the landowners, as well as the local municipalities are established for the specific local project activities. Two local disctricts (Steinkjer and Overhalla/ Høylandet) with different industrial, population and natural conditions have been selected for testing and analysis.

Finland: Forestry Centre of Northern Ostrobotnia (Mr Ensio Kropsu, Planning Manager) will participate as advisors to the project, providing support on Subactions 1, 6 and 7. They will also be involved in the workshops and conference.

Project leadership

The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute will act as co-ordinators of the project. Dr John Milne, who has experience of co-ordinating 3 EU-funded projects in the last 5 years, will act as the lead for the institute. The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute will also undertake the administration of the Scottish lead partner's (Deer Commission for Scotland) contribution. The Co-ordinator will :

• arrange workshops, establish information routines between the partners, and describe progress and preliminary results.
• assume the financial and reporting responsibilities related to NP fund, and other financial matters that the partners have in common.
• prepare a final report, in co-operation with the partners
• together with the partners, arrange a conference at the end of the project.
• A project team with one representative from each partner will assist the project coordinator.