Draft Tasmanian Wild Fallow Plan needs some work

Game Services Tasmania has released a draft of a Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan.

The Gutwein Government made a number of specific and reasonably detailed commitments to Tasmanian deer hunters ahead of the 2021 State Election. In our detailed consideration and response to this draft, the Australian Deer Association will be assessing its alignment with that commitment, which says that the Gutwein Government will:

Provide $250,000 over two years to implement a new Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan for Tasmania, reinvigorate Property-based Game Management Plans, and expand wild fallow deer and wildlife population monitoring.

The Tasmanian Liberal Government recently commenced development of Tasmania’s first 5-year Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan in consultation with the Tasmanian Game Council and stakeholders.

The Plan will set management objectives and the control techniques for managing wild fallow deer in areas including the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, conservation areas, agricultural production land, peri-urban areas and satellite populations.

A key to implementing the Plan is good collaboration between farmers and foresters and recreational hunters to manage wild fallow deer and browsing animals on both private and public land.

Property Based Game Management Plans (PBGMP’s) have been a successful tool in fostering such collaboration, and developing Quality Deer Management (QDM) strategies and browsing animal arrangements.

A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will reinvigorate the use of PBGMP’s, to support farmers, foresters, and hunters working together to set tailored QDM objectives for managing wild fallow deer on their property, including property-specific game seasons and take arrangements, which can then be accredited by Game Services Tasmania.

The normal state-wide game season and take arrangements will still apply to other properties.

We will expand the wildlife population monitoring undertaken by Government which will help refine deer and browsing animal management strategies over time and support the game hunting system more broadly in Tasmania.

Expanded monitoring will also assist in managing the impact of wildlife as we continue working with stakeholders, including landowners, farmers and peak bodies.

The draft plan has a number of elements that we are pleased with and a number that give cause for concern.

There is a tone in the draft which, in contrast to its consistent sops to ‘evidence based’ decision making, tends towards adopting a language of alarmism about biodiversity and social risks that are simply not supported by any credible evidence.

The broad principle of dividing the state into distinct management zones is a sound one. The proposed detail of management actions in those zones, however, is simply lacking in credibility, particularly with its motherhood statements about ‘cutting red tape’, which reads like code for the bureaucrats simply abdicating their role in the management of our natural resources and passing it off to private landholders with minimal oversight or resourcing.

Significant changes to deer management were made at the beginning of 2020. With COVID restrictions, these are yet to have had a chance to take hold fully. However, based on long term population data and harvest data, they should more than account for any natural population increases within the traditional deer range and, over time, begin to place downwards pressure on populations.

The draft plan’s proposed replacement of Property Based Game Management Plans with the so-called ‘light touch’ Property Based Wildlife Management plans would almost certainly tip that balance too far the other way. It would not necessarily result in fewer deer, just poorer quality deer and fewer incentives for hunters to assist in broader wildlife management.

The Tasmanian Government has clearly and unequivocally committed to Quality Deer Management in a promise that it was very keen to promote to hunters ahead of the recent election, including as a core aspect of any altered property-specific arrangements.

Quality Deer Management has an internationally recognised set of underlying principles. Put simply, Quality Deer Management is:

The approach under which young bucks are protected from harvest combined with an adequate harvest of female deer to produce healthy deer herds in balance with existing habitat conditions.

That is what was introduced to Tasmania in the 1990s, and that is what serves the diverse range of interests in wild deer management internationally. Bureaucrats do not have a licence to simply redefine it as something that it is not.

The draft plan will need to be significantly changed regarding Zone 1 in particular if the Government is to avoid breaking its promise to hunters.

Consultation on the draft plan is open until 3 December 2021.

The Australian Deer Association is working with the TDAC and others on our response to this and will have a lot more to say in the coming weeks.

Hunters can view a summary and the draft plan online.