Sustainable Deer Management
Based in the Surrey Hills, our team has over 25-years of combined stalking experience. We are first and foremost wild deer managers and work closely alongside landowners in the creation and implementation of bespoke, conservation focused management plans.
Our aim is to restore balance in woodlands, re-align natural habitats, promote the natural regeneration of pioneer tree species and ultimately to achieve optimal, sustainable levels of biodiversity.
Each of the UK’s six species of wild deer have greatly expanded in numbers and distribution over the last 40-years, with populations growing at an average rate of 35% per annum. In order to ensure that there is balance between wild deer numbers and the natural environment, localised management is an essential tool in order to assist in the estimation of wild deer numbers; undertaking impact assessment in order to asses damage levels within a wild habitat; and also, how culling should be implemented. Whilst there are areas within the UK where wild deer number are indeed in equilibrium with their environment and no formal management is required, simply monitoring - unfortunately, Southern England is an area of great concern at present, where fallow, roe and muntjac numbers continue to expand across Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and Kent.
For millions of years natural predators and prolonged sub-zero winter periods kept UK wild deer numbers at sustainable levels, as found naturally in many European countries, where deer management isn't required at the same level. However, in the current absence of either, UK wild deer numbers are now at their highest level in over 1,000-years. Wild bird populations have been seen to reduce by up to 50% where high densities of wild deer are present and 2022 saw 1 deer hit by a car every 7-minutes.
We welcome all opportunities to work alongside private estates. We have a long and successful track record working alongside some of the UK's largest landowners and managers, which include arable farms, large private estates, forestry managers and rewilding projects.
We undertake this service without charge, with all venison supplied to the local market.
