Heading out for a day in the hills, Falcon Frost pulls on heavy boots and slings a rifle onto his back. He is surrounded by the towering beauty of the Glenfalloch estate in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, north of Glasgow. For ‘townies’, this is a magical place to escape the rat race and bag the six Munros – peaks above 3,000ft – including the queen of the Southern Highlands, Ben Lui, which lies within its 25,000 acres. For Mr Frost, a stalker and estate manager, this is also his place of work. Deer are culled on estates such as Glenfalloch and, for much of the past 28 years, it has been Mr Frost’s job to ensure that it is carried out.
Lately, though, he and others who earn their living in the countryside are starting to feel it is they who have a target on their backs. ‘There’s very little trust left and that’s the problem. We seem to be getting it from all angles,’ he said. ‘Some folk do feel this is an attack on our traditional way of life.’
And they are absolutely correct to feel that way, because it undoubtedly is exactly that.
He is referring to a recent Scottish Government consultation on the most radical changes to deer management in living memory. It contains proposals that would rip up the previously collaborative approach to deer management and, instead, demand reductions in deer numbers. Failure by gamekeepers to carry out culls, ordered by regulator NatureScot, could lead to a fine of £40,000 and a jail term of up to three months – or both. NatureScot could also bill an estate owner if a third party has to do the cull.
It's not as if deer population is the most pressing environmental issue in Scotland, either...
To seasoned observers such as Mr Frost, 48, this increasingly bitter standoff is symptomatic of concerted efforts by an urban-centric government to wrest control of the countryside from those who live and work there. And it’s all being done under the flag of environmentalism.
The worst things in the world are usually done by people wrapping themselves in a flag of righteous cause, Mt Frost...
He added: ‘We had a visit from biodiversity minister Lorna Slater at Glenfalloch and we offered to take her out on the hill for a day and show her what deer management involves. But she hasn’t taken us up on that, unfortunately.’
Anone who refuses to take an opportunity to see first hand what effects their policy is having in the real world probably already knows. But doesn't feel able to defend it.
The Greens minister, who is leading the consultation, has also twice rejected an invitation by Tory MSP and landowner Edward Mountain to a deer stalking ‘fact-finding’ event despite her strong advocacy of the culls.
‘It’s regrettable that she has declined this invitation twice, and perhaps it tells you everything you need to know about this Scottish Government.’
It certainly does.
