For almost 20 years, the Caenlochan area has been subject to fairly intensive deer reduction efforts, over seen first by the Deer Commission for Scotland, then Scottish Natural Heritage and now Nature Scot.
The present efforts are subject to a voluntary Section 7 agreement, which aims to reduce deer numbers in the core area around Caenlochan to 10 per sq km by spring 2026, to aid a suite of upland habitats within the heavily designated area.
During the 2023-24 season, targets were surpassed, and new target culls have recently been agreed for the year ahead. With other changing management priorities within the area, and a lower than average recruitment in 2024, it is possible that the target density may be attained a year ahead of schedule, or if not, the final year of the reduction cull will certainly be more easily achieved.
At that point, habitat monitoring will be undertaken to check on the vegetation response, and it is likely that there will be a fresh count. The information available will then be reviewed to inform actions for the 5-10 year period ahead.
The work undertaken to achieve all this can often by difficult, and requires co-ordination between different properties over a wide area, over seen by experienced Nature Scot staff.
We thank everyone who is involved in trying to make this work.