When a clinical approach is needed

With the local roe causing untold damage to surrounding habitats, all tactics come into play in order to control the booming population and protect biodiversity

- RICHARD NEGUS

As the stubbles appear in East Anglia, they herald the time for Richard Gould and I to take to the margins. When the season shifts from summer to early autumn, we make our hedgerow management plans. We trudge many kilometres each day, measuring distances and widths, counting species, marking hedgerow trees and assessing the overall hedgerow condition. Once all of this data is collected, we make our prescriptions for future management for laying or coppicing, changes to cutting regimes or leaving well alone.

One column on our spreadsheet sports the letters ‘DD’ in the top margin, short for ‘deer damage’. The information we glean from this column leads to another management prescription that’s just as beneficial to the hedgerow ecosystem as laying, staking and binding — deer control.

Running late

Last Monday I was running late. Richard and I had planned to meet at 9.45am at a farm belonging to one of our customers in Mid Suffolk. My truck clock told me I was 20 minutes behind schedule as I bumped off the main road and took a track that led to the farmyard, lined with zesty growth of mid-April hawthorn and hazel. Parking up, I sent a text to my business partner, whose own truck was conspicuous by its absence. “Where are you?” I tentatively typed — Richard hates tardiness. After a minute or two, my phone buzzed with his reply: “Down the lane near the old barn. I’ve already shot three bucks.”