For FLS this year, that will involve maintaining 2,500 kilometers of deer fencing – enough to stretch from Edinburgh to Berlin and back – and culling 30,000 deer, a reduced figure due to the impact of COVID-19.

Doug Knox, FLS Head of Technical Services Group said,
“Effective management of the forests and land that we look after, supports and sustains communities in rural Scotland and conserves and enhances our natural environment for future generations.

For their first six years of growth newly planted and young trees are extremely vulnerable to browsing damage from deer, and to a lesser extent, sheep and goats. At any one time FLS is working to protect around 150 million trees until they are big enough that their leading branches can’t be browsed and can then go on to reach maturity. In 2021 FLS will harvest around nine million trees generating £410m in gross value added for the Scottish economy and locking carbon emissions away in practical and in-demand products such as timber frames for housing and wooden pallets.

Doug Knox added,
“We constantly monitor deer populations across the land that we manage to ensure that we can meet our wider objectives and maintain a diverse and thriving forest environment. “That environment will always include deer but at population levels the land can comfortably sustain, without suffering damage.”

The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on work practices has seen a dip in culling levels in 2021, which means that more work will need to be done to protect young trees in the coming years. The pandemic has also affected the venison market, so this years’ reduced FLS cull will only generate approximately £1 million for the public purse in Scotland, while demand in both the UK and overseas, recovers post-Covid.

Source:contact forestry@pagodapr.com or phone Giselle Dye on 07739 085023 ..