Deer Management and Countryside Stewardship Grants

Deer management plans, properly designed and executed, play an important role in ensuring that landowners are remunerated for their countryside stewardship.

In recent years there has been a perceptible shift in landowner motivation for working with us and other deer managers to ensure that a more natural balance is maintained on their land. As deer numbers have exploded, we have all become increasingly aware that the negative impact isn’t solely on rural livelihoods - through crop damage and RTAs - but increasingly to our natural places and biodiversity.

Most landowners take their responsibilities as stewards of the countryside seriously, and long before Government schemes incentivised action were engaging deer managers to protect local flora and fauna. Thankfully, stewardship schemes now exist, which means that landowners are remunerated for their investment in enhancing wild places.  

Grants are available through the Countryside Stewardship Scheme for Woodland Improvement (WD2), creating Woodland Management Plans (PA3), Woodland Creation (WD1) and developing Woodland Edges on Arable Land (WD3), all of which require a deer management plan and cull records, a further supplementary grant is available for demonstrating Deer Control and Management (WS1).

To be eligible for these, landowners need to demonstrate that native or non-native deer are being effectively controlled where they are having a negative impact on priority species and habitats such as native woodlands. As part of our mutually beneficial arrangements with landowners, we will undertake to produce the required deer management plan, carry out the deer habitat impact and activity assessment, agree and meet cull targets, and record these in a detailed log. All free of charge.

Depending on the acreage, the financial benefits for landowners can be an important supplementary revenue stream. As an example, WS1 is £105 per ha per year, while WD2 is a minimum of £1000 per year, and £127per ha for every ha above 10ha.

We are already seeing the positive impact of this scheme in expanding our natural spaces, we know of exciting regeneration projects across Southern England, including in Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Kent, West and East Sussex. It really goes to show that deer control and conservation are natural partners.