Lowland Deer Management Training Project

Scottish Forestry are organising a lowland deer management training project
that will:

• Train foresters, land managers and landowners on how to complete and
  assess effective and useful Deer Management Plans.
• Increase general understanding of lowland deer and their management.
• Provide practical experience in deer management (pre-DSC1 and stalking
  experience) to aid understanding of effective forest design.
• Explain the different monitoring methodologies and undertake practical
  exercises in each.

In addition to this there are two further optional activities:

• Undertake, as a group, the monitoring of a woodland (Callendar Estate’s
  Drum Wood) near Falkirk to assess deer numbers and compare and contrast
  methodologies and assist in writing an article with the results of these different
  methodologies.
• For any participants who have land on which they can directly manage
  lowland deer, there is funding available to pay for the full DSC1 course.

Time commitment
It is expected that the time commitment will be in the region of three and half to four
days, spread over five months.
- One of the days will be doing the Pre-DSC course with BASC in Dunkeld.
Provisionally booked in for 4th February.
- Another two days will be out in the woods near Falkirk , looking at the different
methodologies of monitoring deer numbers. End of March / Early April.
- There will also be three, hour long, online theory sessions.
- For the optional activities, the full DSC will follow on from the Pre DSC in February
(5-9th Feb) and the monitoring of the wood will take place Spring 2025.

Location

Ideally participants will either live, work within or manage land within the
NatureScot Priority Area. People who write or assess deer management plans for
woodlands in the lowlands elsewhere in Scotland will also be considered.
Funding for the project has been provided by Scottish Forestry Trust, NatureScot
and Scottish Forestry.

If you are interested in taking part please complete the application form and return to Jenny.greaves@forestry.gov.scot by 7th January.
If you have any questions please either email or call Jenny on 07818 522 333.