DI in England

Eastern England

Counties covered: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, London, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk.

Deer species present: Red, fallow, roe, muntjac, Chinese Water Deer. A number of private collections in the region hold various other species.

Key issues: High deer densities, high instances of deer-vehicle collisions, large areas of important woodland, establishing natural regeneration in woodlands, re establishing coppice cycles, productive woodfuel supply; localized high impacts to arable crops.

Key features: Large number of small scattered woodlands, important areas for growing early crop roots and vegetables.

Overview

David Hooton co-ordinates the Deer Initiative’s work in East England. The East of England Deer Forum, established in 2004, brings together stakeholders in the area and has been extremely useful in co-ordinating activities and developing local priorities. The forum identified a number of challenges facing deer managers and landowners; one of these was the sale of deer carcasses, and access to local processing units and markets. A venison feasibility study led to the development of the East of England Venison Project. With the regional deer populations continuing to increase in range and number the incidence of deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) is also increasing. Please visit What We Do » Reducing DVCs for more information on our DVC work nationally.

We have worked closely with the Forestry Commission in the East of England to ensure that deer management becomes an integral part of all woodland management plans.

Woodfuel East administers grants towards a wood fuel supply chain development project being run by the Forestry Commission administering funding from the Rural Development Program for England.

Collaborative deer management

The need to manage deer more effectively across the region has been highlighted in a number of recent reports. Strategic aims for woodfuel production, sustainable ancient woodland management, re-instatement of coppice management, reduction of deer related vehicle accidents; all require a reduction in deer numbers in many areas.

The key to managing the red and fallow deer in the region is through collaborative management. A number of informal and more formal collaboration is in place throughout the region, and this has started to show good local results.

Meeting landowner aims
Maintaining a healthy population of wild deer
Maintaining acceptable levels of impact to woodlands and agricultural crops
Reducing DVCs
Protection of National and European designated sites

Training

Through Landskills East, courses relating to the management of wild deer can be funded up to 65% of course cost. If you spend 50% of your time employed in the rural environment in the East of England you could be eligible.

Courses could include carcass handling, carcass preparation or risk and liabilities for deer managers. Days will also be organised to help landowners identify the challenges associated with an increasing deer population and their impacts on woodlands and crops.

DI Deer Impact and Activity training

Our Partner organisations, including British Association for Shooting and Conservation, British Deer Society and The National Gamekeepers Organisation, will be running subsidized courses over the next 3 years.

Please contact the organisations direct, or David Hooton, for more information.

East of England Deer Forum

Established during 2004 and meeting twice a year, the forum is currently chaired by the Deer Initiative and made up from 22 organisations in the region with an interest in wild deer management (see the list below). The broad aims of the forum are to promote the continued sustainable management of wild deer in the region, to provide a central focus point for the dissemination of information throughout the group and beyond and to identify future management priorities, research and funding opportunities.

The forum has developed 4 sub-groups looking at:

Venison marketing: To establish the means for venison to become more widely available throughout the region and for locally culled deer to be sold as venison within the local area. The East of England Venison Project has been established with a steering group formed from partners of the Deer Forum.
Research: Ongoing projects involving University of East Anglia looking at landscape deer management interactions, impacts and dispersal and red deer calf tagging with monitoring from two sites in east England to establish movement patterns and migration routes.
Media and publicity: The promotion of positive deer management through television, newspapers and local radio. A leaflet ‘Deer in the East of England’ has been produced to provide background information to the general public at local and regional shows and events. These are available for download or from David Hooton at the address shown above.
Deer management: Identifying challenges faced by stalkers, working with other organisations to consider how deer management can become more effective, information about grants for deer management. We have successfully negotiated a range of payments with FC in the east for assistance with, for example, highseats, deer glades and more recently help towards stalker time.

Members of the East England Deer Forum include BASC, Forest Research Country Landowners Association, Natural England, The Deer Initiative, The Anglian Woodland Project, National Trust, National Farmers Union, Farming Wildlife Advisory Group, The Woodland Trust, RSPCA, The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, British Trust for Ornithology, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Forestry Commission and ConFor.

⇑ back to top

East of England Venison Project

In March 2010 David Hooton and the East of England Deer Forum were successful in their bid to The East of England Development Agency for funding of the East of England Wild Venison Project.

Supported by The Forestry Commission and run alongside Woodfuel East, the objectives of the project are:

To improve and stimulate the supply of wild venison to local markets
To improve wild deer management
To improve the Woodland SSSI status in the region
To reduce the number of road traffic accidents associated with wild deer
To support landowners in the region to improve agricultural yields through improved land management

Through match-funding (up to 50%) the project will deliver over £1 million of investment in capital infrastructure, marketing and training.

There has been considerable interest throughout the East of England region (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire). with applicants ranging in size; from a large charitable estate investing in a full storage and processing plant (employing a part-time butcher), to an existing dealer in game expanding the venison side of his current business, to an individual stalker who needed a small chiller unit and extraction vehicle to support his management plan on local wildlife sites.

Graham Riminton has been employed by The Deer Initiative to run this project, to promote the funding opportunities and to work with applicants to develop their projects bids.

For more information, please contact our Venison Project Officer Graham Riminton on 07966 966390 or email vpoeastern@thedeerinitiative.co.uk

⇑ back to top

Deer-vehicle collisions

High volumes of traffic and deer numbers mean that the East of England suffers from a high incidence of deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs), and has a number of the country’s worst DVC hotspots. A joint projects with Suffolk County Council (since 2004) identified two project areas where mitigation techniques including raising driver awareness could be trialled. Both of these were located near Bury St Edmunds and included sections of rumble-strips and increased signage to raise awareness through these hotspot areas. Further projects with the Highways Agency’s managing agents for the trunk road network in the East surveyed known accident sites that involved deer. This type of project is ongoing and we will wherever possible be working with the main agencies and local landowners to monitor and provide advice on the issue of deer related traffic accidents.

Rumble-strip project in Suffolk (photo: D Hooton).

Trials of various reflectors and interactive signage have taken place in conjunction with The Three Counties Road Safety Partnership and The National Trust at Ashridge in Hertfordshire, one of the worst hotspots in the UK.

⇑ back to top

Woodfuel East wood fuel supply chain

Woodfuel East is a project to provide grant support to the wood fuel supply chain. It is run by the Forestry Commission in the East of England working to deliver a sustainable woodland infrastructure in line with government targets. In particular, the Government’s Woodfuel Strategy for England tasks the Forestry Commission with bringing an additional 2 million tonnes of timber to market pa in the form of woodfuel by 2020, saving 400,000 tonnes of carbon and supplying the equivalent of 250,000 homes with energy.

The initial target in the East of England is for 110,000 tonnes pa by 2013 rising to 200,000 pa by 2020 leading to savings of 40,000 tonnes of carbon per year and supplying the equivalent of 25,000 homes with energy.

It is estimated that this will bring an additional 50,000 hectares of woodland into productive management.

If this target is to be reached and, more importantly, if production is to be sustainable it is essential that woodland, once thinned, felled or coppiced, is able to regenerate successfully. Current wild deer populations are at a level where this is not possible in many areas. Together with owners and deer managers we are working with the private sector consultants to provide support advice and infrastructure to enable them to reach their own objectives.

Work with Woodfuel East is ongoing to assess the levels of deer management advice and support required to ensure these targets are met.

⇑ back to top