by Louise Doyle
CULLING was ranked highest as a solution to deer management in the country, according to the findings of a public consultation.
The Final Report into Developing a Sustainable Deer Management Strategy for Ireland by the Irish Deer Management Strategy Group was circulated at the latest Donegal County Council’s Agriculture Committee meeting.
Its findings were drawn from an online public consultation survey.
The majority of those to respond to the survey were from individuals living in rural areas (757).
Other groups to respond included farmers (314) , foresters (91) to ecologists (61) and academics (26).
The questionnaire set out 11 main impacts of increased deer numbers across rural and urban Ireland.
Almost 83 per cent of responders cited biodiversity loss/damage as an impact of increased deer numbers across rural and urban Ireland.
Road traffic accidents/road safety was also listed high up on the list of impact relating to deer (80.9 per cent).
Sixty eight per cent of respondents cited impaired deer welfare as important, while 61.4 per cent of respondents viewed threat to human health (Lyme Disease) as a main impact due to increased deer numbers.
Damage to gardens was on the lower end of the scale, with 35.5 per cent of respondents citing it as somewhat important.
The questionnaire also asked people to consider and to rate the importance of the potential solutions to these issues.
Deer culling ranked highest, with 86.3 per cent of respondents suggesting this measure as a solution.
Seventy-eight per cent of respondents said supports for landowners/land managers to control deer also ranked as a very important measure with respondents, at 78.1 per cent.
The questionnaire also asked respondents to rate the obstacles to successful deer management in Ireland.
Lack of collaborative thinking ranked highest (82 per cent). The limited venison market saw a response percentage of 59.8 per cent.
People were also asked to what extent they agreed that the government should support the development of a wild venison sector. Sixty-four per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with this idea.
Thirty-nine per cent of those who took part in the questionnaire believed there were legislative barriers to effective deer management in Ireland.
Forty-seven per cent of respondents said agreed that training for hunters should be improved in Ireland, while 25 per cent did not consider that improved training was needed.
The executive summary states: “Due to the complexity, cost and subjectivity of carrying out deer counts, it is widely recognised that impact assessment measures form the best measure in assessing the effectiveness of deer management strategies in conjunction with the objectives of landowners.”
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