Valais hobby hunters need a remedial hunt

In Valais, hobby hunters did not fully meet the cull targets during the main hunting season. As a result, a supplementary hunt for red deer is necessary.

In total, hobby hunters shot 1,890 deer, as announced by the cantonal office for hunting, fishing and wildlife (DFJW). The planned quota was 2,090 red deer across the entire canton.

In addition, Valais hobby hunters shot 2,556 chamois, 406 roe deer and 17 wild boar during the main season. In the 19th century, red deer were eradicated in Switzerland; today around 40’000 animals live in the country. Add to that 140’000 roe deer and 90’000 chamois.

Reducing the population is necessary to ensure the protective function of forests. Especially in winter, wildlife develops a strong appetite for the buds and shoots of young trees. Red deer are also targeted in order to maintain the balance between different wildlife species.

In the Aletsch-Goms and Nanz-Saas regions, the planned quota could not be reached due to the high targets. The shortfall — around 180 female red deer — is now to be culled, as in previous years, during a supplementary hunt between mid and late November.

The conditions of the supplementary hunt and the hunting areas will be announced in the official gazette on 16 October 2020. All hobby hunters residing in Valais who have obtained a hunting licence for the 2020 main season are eligible to register. In parallel, professional wildlife wardens will, as every year, carry out regulatory and management culls (removal of weak animals or culls to prevent crop damage).

Costs running into the billions

The Canton of Valais wants to halve the number of deer in the Aletsch area by 2021 and promote “climate-resilient” tree species. Due to “lack of forest regeneration, climate change and bark beetles» the protective forests above Lax, Fiesch, and Fieschertal are at risk. District forester Peter Aschilier is concerned: «If even more trees die off in the coming years, the forests will lose their protective function.» Then protective structures would be needed.

In Graubünden, 39 percent of protective forests are today considered to have reduced stability, and almost 5 percent are classified as critical. If wildlife numbers remain this high, it will become costly. In the Prättigau and the neighboring Herrschaft region, the alarm level is red. Due to massive wildlife damage, the canton has designated nearly 60 percent of its forest as a problem area. According to the draft of the more than 100-page Forest-Wildlife Report, however, it intends to reduce wildlife numbers only slightly, year by year. A «radical reduction in population» would be «unrealistic from a wildlife biology, conservation, but also political and hunting policy perspective». 

The federal government alone invests 70 million francs annually in the maintenance of protective forests. According to the Waldbau-Verbund, however, a portion of this investment produces «only reduced or even counterproductive effects». Experts warn that if nothing is done, additional costs «amounting to several billion francs» must be expected in the coming decades, writes the Beobachter.