Deer

The Deer Group works to promote sustainable deer management, particularly as part of the sustainable upland land use agenda.

The Deer Group has a number of active members, a full list is shown below.

 

Convener

Duncan Orr-Ewing

Vice-Convener

Hazel Forrest

Staff liaison

Juliet Caldwell

The group includes LINK landowning organisations and is therefore both a deer management policy and operational forum, with links to both NatureScot and the private deer management sector.

Latest News

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Programme for Government: new deer management plans welcomed by environmental charities

06 May 2025

Responding to the Programme for Government, Scottish Environment LINK’s chief executive, Dr Deborah Long said: “We welcome today’s news within the Programme for Government that the Scottish government will consider the development of local deer management projects pilots, a plan based on a proposal from LINK Deer Group members. “Scotland’s oversized deer population is a […]

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Deer Group welcomes compulsory deer control scheme approval for Loch Choire Estate

10 Apr 2025

Scottish Environment LINK’s Deer Group welcomes the historic move by NatureScot to enforce a compulsory control scheme at Loch Choire Estate in Sutherland. Deer densities on the estate have been identified as being at an unsustainable level, risking damage to important habitats, including four Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). NatureScot has intervened on this […]

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The Natural Environment Bill must deliver effective reform of deer management in Scotland

19 Mar 2025

By Duncan Orr-Ewing, Convener of LINK’s Deer Group Over the past eighty years there have been no less than seven separate Government-appointed inquiries into the “red deer problem”.  By 2010, red deer numbers had reached an all-time high of 400,000 animals and the Red Deer Commission was merged with Scottish Natural Heritage (now NatureScot). The […]

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