This year’s plan of the Slovenian Forest Service, which must be approved by the ministry, calls for a cull of somewhat fewer than 9000 deer. This is 16 percent more than in last year’s plan. Fewer deer than planned usually end up being culled, while several hundred are killed by wolves. Deer tend to cause the most damage in forests, pastures, and fields in the Kočevsko region and the area around Postojna. Farmers are not compensated for that damage.
No one knows the exact number of deer in Slovenia. What is known is that their numbers tend to increase by about 1900 a year. According to officials at the Forest Service, the number has been increasing for the past 70 years, but has now surpassed the upper sustainable limit. Deer have begun to appear in areas where they were previously absent, such the Drava Field (Dravsko polje) and the region around Vipava. Forestry officials warn that the animals are destroying forests - particularly young trees that are being planted by the state after older trees were destroyed by an ice storm and an infestation of bark beetles.

Erika Pečnik Ladika, TV Slovenija; translated by J. B.