John Muir Trust announces plans to increase deer culls at its Scottish sites; it manages the likes of Sandwood and Quinag in Sutherland
DEER culls are to be stepped up at Sutherland sites looked after by the John Muir Trust, it has announced.
The charity, which works to protect and restore the nature, has announced plans to increase its culling operations across Scotland – in a bid to not only help rejuvenate areas badly damaged by growing deer numbers, but also to help tackle climate change.
The trust manages 25,000 hectares of Scottish landscapes, including Sandwood and Quinag in Sutherland.
Its culls are part of a wider acceleration of efforts to rewild or transform land in its care.
It explained that intensive deer grazing is one of the "greatest barriers" to natural regeneration and expansion of native woodlands.
Currently, 12 million tonnes of CO2 are absorbed by Scotland’s forests and woodlands each year, and the trust said that reducing deer numbers will protect peatland and also enable woodlands to expand and absorb even more carbon.
Mike Daniels, the trust’s head of policy and land management, said: “All across the globe, alarm bells are ringing over the climate emergency and the extinction of species.
“Every year, new record temperatures are recorded and in the past few weeks we have seen blistering heatwaves in the United States and catastrophic flooding in northern Europe.
“The role of woodland and peatland in capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere cannot be overstated. “If Scotland is to achieve its climate targets, we must place an emphasis on expanding native woodland, and protecting peatlands.
"We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to modernising deer management regulation to address damage to woodlands and peatlands during the lifetime of this parliament,” he continued.
“In the meantime, the John Muir Trust will ensure the land we look after is playing its full part in combatting climate change and aiding nature recovery by significantly increasing deer cull targets.”