Archive for April 2008
Book Review – A Special Place?
April 2008Many of us think that the Quantocks are a special place and this is the title for the first chapter of a book entitled “The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills” published by English Heritage. The author is Hazel Riley, who has already done a similar service for Exmoor, and there are forewords by Lady Gass and Chris Edwards of the Quantock AONB Service.
This is a fascinating book for anyone and especially for those who know and love the Quantocks. It examines the changing face of the Quantock landscape from earliest times to the 20th century but particularly explores the impact that man and his activities have had on the hills. Hazel is well versed in the archaeology of the area and takes us through the evidence of early hunter-gatherers from before the last ice-age, through the Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements and standing stones, and the barrows and earthworks that litter the hilltops, to historic times. The Middle Ages were a period of deer parks and the origins of most of the settlements that we know today with the ancient track-ways and early buildings. In more recent times she writes of the enclosure movement, industrial archaeology and big estates of the last two hundred years.
It is a fascinating read and a mine of information. If you have been intrigued by the Trendle Ring or Dowsborough Camp, by the barrows on Wills Neck or the statue of Jupiter at Terhill, you can learn all about them in this book, although I am sorry that Hazel does not explain the derivation of Wills Neck.
However well you think you know the Quantocks you will still find new information about features that you may often have passed but not recognised for what they are. The illustrations are superb with many aerial views that show the hills in a new light, maps, old photographs and drawings.
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Deer Management on the Quantocks
April 2008[The following is an edited version of a letter from Dr Jochen Langbein, Secretary of the Quantock Deer Management and Conservation Group, which appeared in the West Somerset Free Press. It does not necessarily represent the views of Friends of Quantock].
The Quantock Deer Management and Conservation Group have called for more female deer to be culled in and around the Quantock Hills. I would like to explain the reasons that have led the very broad array of individuals and conservation organisations, which make up the QDM&CG, to ask local landowners to move towards culling in a more collaborative, selective and sustainable manner.
A visual spring (pre-calving) count of red deer on the Quantocks has been organised annually with the help of 50 volunteers for the past 17 years. Deer are difficult to count accurately, but this standardised count enables at least minimum numbers to be confirmed and trends to be monitored. The average of counts obtained during the five years from 1993-1997 was 555, rose to 745 from 1998-2002 and has averaged 830. The count records merely the annual minima before at least 350 calves are born during the summer, taking the total to somewhere near 1100.
Culling of deer on the Quantocks is nothing new, 200 to 250 deer will have been culled in most recent years but this has clearly not prevented the increase in deer numbers and the proportion of adult females culled needs to be greater.
For appropriately qualified and experienced stalkers, red deer are not an especially difficult species to cull. The more complicated task lies in getting the many individual landowners to work towards maintaining a healthy and sustainable herd as a valued part of our wildlife and asset to local tourism, but without unacceptable levels of damage to farm and timber crops or detrimental impact on semi-natural habitats.
The QDM&CG is fully committed to the long-term conservation of a substantial population of red deer on the Quantocks. However, its members (which include Quantock landholders, as well as other interested bodies) have jointly reached the conclusion that concerns about damage to farmland, forestry, and woodland biodiversity make the current size of deer populations unsustainable in the longer term particularly relative to the conservation of the ancient semi-natural oak woods on the Quantock, which are a Special Area of Conservation of international importance. The group has therefore asked local landholders to liaise in a gradual reduction of the population over the coming five years, and then retain a population nearer 500 head. To accomplish this, an extra 50 to 100 mature females will need to be culled annually to initiate a more significant reduction in the breeding herd.
Whilst the optimum deer population level for the Quantocks remains debatable and will always require compromises between landholders and other interest groups, in the absence of any natural predators, direct management intervention does become inevitable at some point.
Therefore as a biologist and wildlife enthusiast I have no problem in accepting the need for culling as part of deer management. The more important issue is that deer culls should be undertaken in a humane, professional and highly selective manner and that a significant and healthy population is retained which remains valued as an asset rather than perceived as a pest by landholders.
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