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NORTHERN IRELAND

Shooting Seasons NI - Curlew

With effect from 1 September 2011 a "voluntary ban" has been placed on the shooting of Curlew in Northern Ireland.
This, in effect, means that the species is protected.

Change to NI Legislation

Clause 103 of the 2011 Justice Act will be enabled on 1 December 2011, which will allow 'one on, one off' variations of firearms of all classes provided that they are of exactlysimilar types.

Since this is a change to the law it still needs Parliamentary approval and we will update this website as soom as the final position is confirmed.

Forestry Shooting to let in Northern Ireland

Forest Service NI will be advertising the areas they wish to lease for shooting in the Belfast Telegraph, The Irish News and the News Letter in the weeks commencing 16th and 23rd January 2012.

The information will also be found online at www.dardni.gov.uk/forestservice from January.

TREE DAMAGE BY DEER

The damage caused by deer can be seen easily if one knows where to look and the signs left by deer.

This damage can be found on trees of varying size and age, but can be summed up as follows:-

FRAYING: Is damage caused by male deer trashing the young trees to remove the velvet from their antlers, this leaves the tree of no commercial value even if it survives. However fraying is not as costly as browsing or stripping bark. Fraying is a mating ritual driven by hormones.

BARK STRIPPING: This can be severe and again it will depend on the species of deer, but Sika is the worst for stripping bark. Deer use their lower teeth to cut into the bark and gouge it from the trunk leaving their teeth marks in the wood. This can retard the trees growth, but not always.

Some trees will break off or become infected at the wound. Bark is not thought to be stripped as a source of food. FERAL GOAT can also cause damage by stripping bark and should be eradicated without delay, they also cause very serve damage to fencing unlike deer goat will go through fences, deer will go over were possible.

BROWSING: This effects trees differently depending upon their species and age of trees, also the species of deer involved. Browsed leaders will produce several new shoots some of which may die off at a later stage, but the tree’s commercial value is in doubt as it is unlikely to grow out straight. Browsed shoots tend to check the growth of the tree and make for more knots in the wood thus lessening its value when the timber’s graded, this can vary greatly depending on tree species. Although browsed trees may survive they will be poorer quality at harvest. Side browsing has little effect once trees are well established, a browse line on trees is a tell tale sign that deer are present on the site.

Browsed board leaf trees can become no more than shrubs after they’ve been browsed heavily in early life or be multi limbed, which greatly devalues their timber. Trees are browsed more heavily in autumn and winter as browse is a source of food. Deer are drawn to open woodland areas but once these are planted up the deer will try to move back in, at that stage the planting must have protection i.e. high, small mesh fences to keep out deer, goats and hares.

Deer are attracted to unusual scents as some rose growers have found to their cost and unusual tree scents will also attach them. Forest park arboretums in flower will always attach deer.

Repairing fences is a necessary job that no one likes and costs for fencing vary greatly depending on the terrain, chemical repellents are expensive, where as shooting deer brings a rich harvest in the form of venison which can have a commercial value, but a lardering facility must be put in place to handle carcasses hygienically which will incur costs.

Deer culls when carried out property are quick and humane, the costs are not prohibitive and is the best way to protect the forester’s crop.

E.S. Toner

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