By Alex Keeble, Central England Game & Wildlife Advisor
The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust conducts scientific research into Britain’s game and wildlife management and the effects of farming and other land management practices on the environment.
The Advisory team play an important role in disseminating this applied practical research to the managers of the countryside via a series of events and visits held throughout the country, including training courses and face-to-face visits. During the spring and summer months my role as the Central England Game & Wildlife Advisor for the GWCT varies considerably; I spend my time both in and out of the office and travel across the country to provide practical advice to a variety of land managers to include but not limited to best practice game management, habitat management, landscape-scale projects, BNG surveys and a suite of training courses.
Those of you who have followed my previous articles will know that the GWCT Advisory Service offers an ‘on the ground’ Shoot Biodiversity Assessment. These typically coincide with the months of February-June, when game shoots are preparing for the coming shooting season and may need external help to improve the shoot, create a grey partridge recovery plan, assess the habitats and deliver biodiversity net gain. Additionally to on-site visits, the GWCT in partnership with Perdix, developed a shoot biodiversity tool to provide users with a quick and easy way of assessing key biodiversity indicators (woodland biodiversity, farmland birds, wild pollinators, and ground-nesting waders) on their shoots. The calculator is based on GWCT science on the ecological consequences of gamebird releasing and management, and Defra habitat provision targets to sustain farmland birds and wild pollinators. This tool is free to use and will help land managers to improve the overall habitat matrix of a shoot to aim to achieve a net biodiversity gain.
As GWCT advisors, many members of the team including myself conduct breeding bird and butterfly surveys across farms to measure population trends and assess whether habitat changes, predation management or supplementary feeding has an effect on numbers. These changes may involve moving from conventional farming to an organic system, or implementing addition habitat either from agri-environmental schemes or private funding. These yearly surveys provide useful data for farms and estates to compare changes and alternate farm management techniques to improve declining species. Areas where species such as lapwing, grey partridges and skylarks reside can be managed in a sensitive way, with focused attention on improving habitat, predation pressures and farming practices to mitigate losses.
There are a variety of courses that we run at the GWCT, and as an Advisor our role is to comprehensibly understand these courses theoretically and practically to be able to deliver them to candidates. Recently I have carried out a suite of predation management training for gamekeepers and land managers; these courses cover corvid control, fox control using HCRs (humane cable restraints) and tunnel trapping. I have also recently delivered the new BASIS Rat Control for Gamekeepers course, which has been developed due to the recent rodenticide use changes (1 January 2025) that SGARS (second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides) can no longer be used in “open areas”. SGARS can now only be used “in and around buildings”, while certain brands of Cholecalciferol can be used for rats and mice “in and around buildings” and in “open areas”.
Many of the staff at the GWCT are involved in landscape recovery projects across the country, with an array of short-term and long-term projects being carried out utilising our expertise in working with land managers to help find solutions and implement our research. Numerous advisors are already carrying out landscape recovery projects through farmer clusters (Allenford and Martin Down Farmer Clusters), biodiversity net-gain auditing (BNG) and habitat management advice where we can deliver our research in a practical form.
Throughout the summer months, GWCT events are held at farms, shoots and estates organised by the regional organisers and through our patchwork of county committees run by voluntary supporters of the Trust. At these events, GWCT Advisors attend to offer advice on best practice game management and provide any updates on policy or legislation.
Further details of our advisory services can be found on our website or by emailing advisory@gwct.org.uk.