Weekly News

  Everywhere we go we notice the grazing impacts of deer in the uplands. Here is a picture showing the long-term impacts of deer/sheep on habitats, notably on Heather cover.  The difference inside the deer fence and outside of it is absolutely massive. Interesting to think how different the uplands would be, in terms of the ecosystem services they deliver, if levels of grazing were reduced at a landscape scale…

Three of us attended the IUCN peatland restoration conference in Shropshire this week. Some interesting presentations were given, and some good new professional contacts made.  We sponsored the event, and presented some of our posters along with giving a talk.  Heard some talk that it would be good to see Peatland Action be back on this year – here’s hoping

  Spring marks the start of our national deer impacts survey (Nearest Neighbour) which we have undertaken for Forest Enterprise Scotland since 2008.  Our survey team’s travel across Scotland, visiting all the forest re-stocking coupes planted the previous year, to measure the level of deer impact that has accumulated over the previous winter. In a typical year there are ~ 400 sites to visit which means that around 50,000 individual…