THE New Forest has been a hunting forest for more than 1,000 years.

It is a National Treasure. The true meaning of the word forest comes from the French language meaning an area reserved for hunting deer.

The New Forest Buck Hounds hunted the fallow buck. There was a strict discipline in how this was done.

A fallow buck was selected from the herd using hounds specially trained for the purpose.

When the buck was at bay he was dispatched humanely using a pistol. No hound ever touched the animal.

The Forestry Commission, which owns the deer, then sold the carcase to a butcher.

When The New Forest Buck Hounds were disbanded in 1997 there were 3,500 head of Fallow deer in the New Forest.

By the end of this year the Forestry Commission will have culled the population to just 600 head.

Why? Because the deer eat the tops of young trees which the Forestry Commission grow in sterile monoculture enclosures.

In the past the Buck Hounds with their dedicated band of followers prevented the Forestry Commission from culling the herd unnecessarily.

Now no one cares about the Fallow deer and the Commission just does what it wants. There are many who were against hunting deer with hounds then who now bitterly regret their passing.

Lord Burns said in his Government Inquiry in 2000 that in areas where there is wide use of hounds the quarry species are more vigorous and healthy.

Due to the selective nature of hound use, only weak or lame animals fail to escape.

Where there is no hound following, quarry species tend to be less abundant due to the activities of land managers both in culling and reduction of habitat.

It is clear that the only true real friends all the deer, foxes and hare have are the very people who hunt them.

Whether you approve of hunting or not it is an inescapable truth that it is the best way of conserving their populations.

ROGER BELL,

Southampton.