LDNS & Wild Deer Best Practice. Spring 2025.
LDNS remains involved in the working group of WDBP and has been very active recently in two main issues.
Habitat Impact Assessing using Woodland Habitat Impact Assessing – lite, the Scottish WDBP arranged courses all over Scotland, hundreds attended and interest and skills in this method are developing and being undertaken pan Scotland by the entire sector, this is very gratifying,
I was asked to visit the lake District to exhibit the assessment o the main deer managers in England who have used a similar impact assessment on a walkthrough manner rather than a spot site manner, there were several things learned by both parties, one, reduce the diameter of the circle of assessment, and two adapt towards the English site recording sheet for improved assessment.
The Use of blood trailing dogs and leashes since the Hunting with Dogs Act has been introduced. There may be a query of how well controlled a dog is once it is un-leashed, especially should the deer die as the handler arrives on the scene.
A complex letter was sent to the Rural Affairs & Islands Committee asking them to use their powers to amend the Hunting with Dogs Act to allow trained deer trailing dogs to operate un-leashed in the knowledge that any impact on the deer will be with the clear and undisputed intention to mitigate the welfare of the compromised injured deer.