The culling of 1,000 deer a year in the Cairngorms has led to an expansion of 164 hectares of native woodland annually, new research suggests.
The growth of woodland in the mountain range “occurred as a direct result of the increased collaborative deer cull over the last 30 years”, according to a scientific paper.
Sustainable management through culling has also removed the need for almost all deer fencing, according to the paper published in the Journal of Applied Ecology by scientists at Cairngorms Connect, a partnership of four land managers within Cairngorms National Park.
Cairngorms Connect stretches for about 600 square kilometres, or 60,000 hectares, and includes ancient woodland, blanket bog, wetland and woodland bogs with wildlife such as eagles, red squirrels and insects. The
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