Thousand year tradition

The work of Keeper Robert Colin-Stokes’ goes right back to William the Conqueror and the very creation of Hampshire’s world-famous woodlands.

His professional forebears were the ‘tine men’ royally charged with protecting the ‘vert’ and ‘venison’ of ‘Nova Foresta’ (the trees and deer of the New Forest).

Then as now, none can claim a more intimate and complete knowledge of the area’s wildlife, trails and changing moods.

Little wonder that joining the unique Forestry Commission team on an exploration of the New Forest is an opportunity not to be missed.

Mr Colin-Stokes, said: “The insight we offer to this extraordinary landscape is maybe why people find our guided tours so fascinating.

“The royal parties chasing deer for sport are long gone.  But the huntsman’s skills of tracking and stealth remain vital to our task.

“Even now our job is still to keep the forest herd safe and healthy.

“Our lives are as embedded in nature as ever they were.  And our year is still marked out by the seasons and the deer’s cycle of life.”

For the forest’s 12 keepers the ‘new year’ begins in autumn with the ‘rut’.

October’s mists herald the age-old right of combat as male deer battle for the right to father the herd’s next generation.

As the animals gather at their historic mating grounds the keepers count the females and fawns born earlier in the year.

The deepening winter will be the last for the old and sick deer as the keepers carry out the annual cull.

Without man to maintain the balance once kept by natural predators, deer numbers would spiral out of control. Starvation and sickness would quickly follow.

The first flowers of spring are appearing when a full census of the entire forest herd is carried out.

New-born fawns the keepers spot hidden amid the long grass reveal the fulfilled promise of October’s dramatic rut.

Mr Colin-Stokes, said: “Now we’re part of a big organisation including timber specialists, planners, rangers and technical staff.

“And it’s in the summer you can best see the value of the work we all put into the forest.

“Flowers like rare wild gladioli appear throughout the forest.  Masses of insects dance in the warm air. Buzzards and Dartford warblers are on the wing.

“All wildlife benefits when you manage the environment well.”