iDeer: A decision-support tool for managing deer alongside woodland creation
Increasing deer (Cervidae) densities driven by land-use change and climate warming represent a growing challenge to the establishment and management of woodlands across temperate biomes. While effective deer management requires a landscape-scale approach to plan and coordinate, such management remains challenging without spatially explicit information on potential impact risks under alternative management scenarios.
In this webinar, Amy Gresham (DEFRA) and Becks Spake (University of Southampton) presented the iDeer Tool, an interactive decision-support tool for predicting deer impact risk to woodlands across England and Wales. The tool enables users to view current deer impact ‘risk maps’ and assess how different woodland establishment scenarios may alter the distribution of impact risk across landscapes, beyond the immediate planting sites. The tool is intended to facilitate pre-emptive, collaborative action among landowners by providing downloadable risk maps for integration into management plans and grant applications.
Amy and Becks summarised how they co-developed the tool with deer experts, and provided a short demonstration of the tool.