Covid 19 – the senseless lockdown in the countryside, SNH and deer stalking

April 3, 2020 Nick Kempe 7 comments
Extract from Cairngorms National Park Authority website

In the corona panic, the Scottish Government and our Public Authorities have completely lost all sense of reason.  It will have serious human and environmental consequences.

What the Coronavirus Health Protection Restriction Scotland Regulations (see here), passed last week by the Scottish Government without any parliamentary scrutiny, actually say is that you cannot leave where you are living unless you have a reasonable excuse.  These include:

“to travel for the purposes of work or to provide voluntary or charitable services, where it is not reasonably possible for that person to work, or to provide those services, from the place where they are living”.

While you might occasionally be able to pot a deer from your upstairs window, that would be dangerous and you cannot normally stalk from where you are living.  There is therefore, contrary to SNH’s advice,  NO legal restriction on deer managers travelling to go stalking as part of their work.  Its important here to note that there is NO reference to “essential work” in the regulations.  This has been added by government afterwards, with the UK and Scottish Government inventing definitions of what is essential on the hoof, and with every government agency in turn then coming up with a slightly different definition of what  they believe “essential” is.  This is bonkers.

People working outdoors in the countryside –  for whatever reason  – just like walkers (see here), pose almost no risk when it comes to spreading the coronavirus.  It really doesn’t matter whether your work is perceived as essential (e.g farmers) or non-essential (e.g artists painting the landscape).  The facts are that most stalkers work alone.   Most now use ATVs to get onto to the hill and to transport deer off it.  The only time they are likely to have contact with others is in the deer larders, which are part of food production and are exempt from the the list of indoor premises that have been shut as part of the lockdown.  I have never been a fan of  the Association of Deer Management Groups approach to managing red deer, they have like our governments in the corona crisis done too little too late, but  their advice to members was responsible (just like the advice which say Mountaineering Scotland issued to hillwalkers).  Yet SNH has taken it upon itself to overrule this and declare that travel to go  stalking – ie driving to wherever your ATV is located – should stop.  This is bonkers.

SNH’s justification for this is that the stalker might have an accident and need to call on the emergency services.   The chance of this happening is miniscule and the ADMG advice on how to reduce such risks is sensible.

The position of stalking is completely different to muirburn, which the Scottish Parliament rightly banned for the duration of the crisis this week (see here).  That is because we know moorland fires regularly get out of control and can tie up fire crews for days.  The fire service is playing an important role at present assisting the SNH.  But we cannot stop all work on the basis that someone might have an accident.   I will not be surprised if the statistics soon show that accidents in people’s homes, which has long been the most common location for accidents to occur,  are increasing – not least because people unable to get outside and without jobs take to drink.

The  consequences of SNH’s advice for both the environment and climate change (that other emergency that was declared a year ago) are likely to be dire.  We need to bring deer numbers down to enable woodland to regenerate and prevent damage to peat and other habitats, as the Deer Working Group reported at the beginning of the year (see here for recommendations for Cairngorms National Park).  What SNH’s advice does is to undermine the efforts of all those landowners who have been trying to bring deer numbers down, like Wildland Ltd and the National Trust for Scotland, and excused all the estates that have far too many deer, led by the Royal Family at Balmoral (see here) from doing anything.

In issuing this crass advice, SNH have completely abandoned their statutory responsibility for controlling the number of red deer and protecting the natural environment.   They need to be shamed and everyone who cares about the natural environment needs to protest.  The Coronavirus Restriction Regulations are draconian enough without making the situation worse.

Addendum

Since writing this post I have learned that Wild Land Ltd have furloughed 60 staff – in other words the UK Government is going to pay 80% of their salaries up to £2500 a month.   I am sure many of these staff had to stop work, such as those working in the boutique hotel at Killiehuntly, but I wonder how many of these were working outside?  If the number includes stalkers keeping deer numbers down out of season, the risk now is that the large population of deer on Atholl Estates will move over the watershed into Glen Feshie  to take advantage of all those regenerating trees.  The same is likely to happen at Mar Lodge.  It looks like years of conservation effort could be undermined because somehow stalking, while quite safe, is not deemend “essential”.

7 Comments on “Covid 19 – the senseless lockdown in the countryside, SNH and deer stalking

  1. “Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking”. I think that’s what’s happening here. These organisation’s “leaders” are panicking. They need to take a collective deep breath and get a grip. Consider the law. Consider how their organisation’s operations fit within the law – and carry out a risk assessment if they do. it’s all common sense – what we don’t need is panic.

    1. Unfortunately logic and reason went out the window years ago about the same time that risk assements came in.

  2. This is so badly handed we have people walking around in parks and the streets people out joging and cycling all passing each other yet wee can’t drive in our cars taking our own food and it may well be our last time to see the hills and mountains at the moment police are useing there helicopter in the hope of stoping people walking in the loch lomond and around it .How much is this costing We also have the world expert on viruses, prof sir Hugh Pennington but Strurgeon won’t talk with him because he’s not a nationalist in stead she has a feamale doctor who is not a expert in viruses Strurgeon is playing politics with our lifes

  3. And to top it all off even better than Charles running away to birkhill for some fishing and beast slaying we’ve got the chief medical officer who’s been laying the guilt trip nonsense about staying in to protect the nhs has been away to her second home to meet her parents 44 miles away from home what’s that saying about the seriousness of this virus she’s 50 surely her folks are in 70 range making them almost certain to die .at least Charles has come clean and decided to donate his scottish estates to the scottish youth foundation to allow all children from scotland outdoor training well done what a man.

  4. That’s great news about Charles donating all the scottish estates is that what his mom is going to tell us about tomorrow I heard she’s ready to hand over her entire fortune to the nhs and only collect universal credit from now on what a woman truly one of the people

  5. As usual,Nick, there is a wealth of logic here. Does it not seem, though that the situation demonstrates that we,human beings are not primarily driven by reason.
    Irrational responses need not be just a result of panic.Lots of folk, with no responsibility at all, are convinced they have “the answer”
    Well qualified,experienced scientists are throughout the world trying to make sense of how to handle the problem.What seemed a few days ago to be the proper route to suppression involved testing,tracing,etc. It seems accurate antibody testing may not be as straightforward.Real experts disagree as to the way ahead.
    In difficult situations where so many become “experts” the simplicity of the required actions of the citizenry is important. My neighbours who usually operate alone heavy earth moving equipment are furloughed.Many jobs like this could be done effectively with social distancing. But how does it look? why is he working and I`m not?
    The idea of the Governments, is,I assume to foster a sense of togetherness. I totally agree with the unreason that is being applied and I totally agree with trying to convince folk with rational argument.But sometimes you get the message that folk maybe are not so responsive to reason,yet.
    ” It`s the G5 masts, It`s the antichrist also known as Nicola Sturgeon,it`s the Russian mafia,……. ”
    There`s a lot of “imaginative” folk out there.

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