Deer Management
The main public and charitable landowners on Cannock Chase National Landscape are working together to co-ordinate the management of the wild deer that live on the Chase.
Staffordshire County Council, the National Trust, Forestry England and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, together with the Cannock Chase National Landscape have agreed a management framework that promotes the welfare and sound management of wild deer, in balance with their habitat, through a collaborative and co-ordinated approach.
Our local deer herds are an attractive and characteristic feature of the Cannock Chase landscape. Catching glimpses of them can be a wonderful and memorable experience. However, the presence of deer near roads, on farmland, in nature reserves, in woodlands with young trees, and in gardens can bring issues for both deer and people.
In the absence of natural predators, deer populations have expanded rapidly over the past few years, reaching numbers that cannot be sustained to the detriment of the environment and the health of the animals themselves. In large numbers deer have negative impacts on trees, forestry and crops and farming, resulting in damage costing tens of thousands of pounds. Excessive browsing can also reduce the woodland understorey and ground vegetation leading to declines in populations of woodland birds, invertebrates and small mammals. It also prevents the natural regeneration of trees. On heathlands high levels of browsing can suppress the growth of delicate plants such as, bilberry and heather.
Deer are also involved in around 150 traffic accidents on the Chase each year, causing death and injury to the animals, injuries to people and thousands of pounds of vehicle damage.
The management framework will co-ordinate the work of partners to sustain a healthy deer population that is in balance with the environment through the following actions:
Please find the framework for deer management here.
The British Deer Society
The British Deer Society has lots of information on its website. They are a charity dedicated to educating and inspiring everyone about deer.
Here you can find out more about the deer species and also further information and advice particularly regarding to deer vehicle collisions.
More information on what to do if you are involved in a collision or to report an injured deer can be found on this website in Frequently Asked Questions. Look down the page to Enjoying and Respecting Cannock Chase.