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Farmers and forestry experts say their crops, newly-planted saplings and fences are being "decimated" following an increase in the number of deer across south-west England.

The deer are being blamed for damaging woodlands and destroying crops, as well as wrecking expensive fencing and allowing other livestock to escape.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has set out plans to increase the culling of deer and to introduce more deer officers to advise farmers on management and potential firearms licences.

But some animal welfare campaigners are opposed to any cull, saying: "The solution will never be found down the barrel of a gun."

Alan Hembrow is a tenant farmer, based near Liskeard in Cornwall, who is frustrated and angry at what he is seeing.

He said: "Back 20 years ago we'd see the odd deer, now we're seeing herds of 20 or 30 in a field - it's just got well out of control.

"It's not just in farming land, it's in the woodlands as well - they're taking out the the young saplings.

"It needs to be a major cull of the deer and it needs to happen soon.

"I know it sounds cruel to the public. It's now time to control it."

He said he had lost £5,000 on damaged crops every year for the past five years but could not put a figure on the fencing costs, which were "astronomical".

The Forestry Commission employs specialist deer officers who play a critical role in managing the impact of wild deer on woodlands and advise landowners, managers, and forestry agents.

Chris Mason is one of two deer officers in the South West.

He said: "In certain areas woodland decimation is going to happen because the numbers of deer are getting out of control and there are no natural predators.

"We've got no lynx, no wolves like we had 800 years ago so we need to be looking at ways of controlling the numbers of deer to stop that damage."

Tony Juniper, chairman of Natural England, said: "Across the country we know that very high numbers of deer, including introduced species such as muntjac and fallow, these are now a very material issue in the health of the landscape.

"The browsing out of the understory, removing habitat that's important for birds like nightingales, so we do know now there's an ecological issue that we need to deal with because the numbers have become so high."

The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) is opposed to culling deer.

Elisa Allen, vice president of programmes, said: "Removing deer from the landscape doesn't stop their numbers from rebounding, and, in many cases, a temporary reduction in population leaves more food available per animal, which can increase breeding rates in the survivors.

"We owe it to these gentle animals to pursue humane and sustainable options such as habitat modification, installing appropriate fencing, and limiting access to artificial food sources, because the solution will never be found down the barrel of a gun."

Elliot Fairs, an ecologist who runs a farmer cluster group in Devon called the Teign Valley Facilitation Fund, said: "There was a very clear challenge all the farmers were facing which was the rising numbers of deer in the Teign Valley.

"It was causing them all sorts of problems, be it damaging their fencing, eating their crops, destroying their woods, any laid hedges, any planted hedges were being affected."

A herbivore impact assessment revealed nine of the 13 landowners surveyed reported high levels of deer browsing.

In the first year of the group's management scheme 432 deer have been culled.

"I'm an ecologist, I'm not a deer stalker," said Fairs. "I'm not really somebody who gets the whole stalking, hunting side of things.

"But to suddenly understand and see with my own eyes the links between the clear levels of deer and the impact they're having on other species of wildlife and the damage they're causing to habitats.

"It was pretty obvious to me that if I didn't try and help figure out a way to resolve or at least reduce this problem, the other efforts I was putting in to save dormice and butterflies would be pretty much nullified."

A spokesperson for Defra said: "Deer damage is one of the biggest negative impacts on our trees and woodlands."

"New measures will help restore nature, boost our home-grown timber industry and protect the millions of trees we are planting across the country, including by making it quicker and simpler for farmers, foresters and landowners to get the licences they need to protect their land while ensuring deer management remains safe and humane."

It sites evidence that suggests a third of English woodlands are impacted by deer – an increase from about a quarter in the early 2000s.

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Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs