GWCT News Blog

On 19th & 20th January the team at GWCT’s Allerton Project was delighted to welcome BBC Countryfile for two days of intensive filming, with the 320ha Loddington estate acting as the ‘hub’ for an episode that was broadcast on Sunday 6th February 2022. You can watch it on iPlayer here >

Earlier today (3 February), in a House of Lords debate on bird control licences, the discussion turned quickly to game management.

It is concerning to see the rise in wheat prices hitting shoots in the pocket, but it is important that we don’t let it impact farmland birds.

World Wetlands Day on the 2nd of February each year aims to raise awareness about wetlands; it also marks the anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands, an international treaty signed in 1971. The themes of this year’s awareness day are “Value”, “Manage” and “Restore”.

The GWCT’s Big Farmland Bird Count (BFBC) is pleased to announce a FREE collaborative online webinar on the 9th of February at 7pm to help record what farm birds are present at this time of year during the official count from February 4th - 20th. You can register for the FREE webinar here.

"I’d like to think that most game managers are conservationists at heart, and I’m certainly only doing my advisory service job after 40 years with the GWCT because I believe in the conservation spin off from the help that I give"

We are once again joining forces with the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) to showcase the important role farmers play when it comes to looking after farmland birds.

Farmer clusters in the Avon Valley and encircling Martin Down have put farmers at the heart of conservation and the results are there for all to see.

With Defra due to undertake a call for evidence on the future of fox snares, there has never been a better moment to make the distinction between a modern humane cable restraint that meets international standards, and the cheap and nasty wires that went before. 

At our demonstration farm, the Allerton project, we have undertaken research to understand what constitutes a healthy soil and how to measure constituents such as soil moisture as well as research considering the role of soil in crop production “in the round” i.e. from both a sustainable and profitable perspective.