GWCT News Blog

what do our bees and insects want, which are the most useful to have on your farm?

Please help us work towards better advice and support mechanisms for curlew by sharing your experience through our survey.

“My Lords, for biodiversity to be diverse and flourish in the UK, it needs habitat, species protection where appropriate, the provision of winter food for birds and animals and sensible predator control.” That was the opening remark by The Earl of Caithness last Thursday (22 April) as the Lords Grand Committee marked Earth Day by debating plans to declare a biodiversity emergency.

The results of the Scottish election next month could be highly influential regarding the impact on rural management for the next five years and beyond. 

Curlew breeding and wintering numbers are declining in Hampshire and periodic surveys of breeding waders in the New Forest suggest that the curlew population probably peaked in the 1980s at about 120 pairs, but has since declined to about 45 pairs. 

The GWCT has estimated that planting a tree every 20 metres in English hedgerows would significantly meet the policy target, with the potential to host 40 million trees without repurposing a single acre of land.

Muirburn, which covers the controlled burning of heather, gorse bushes and grasslands, is a vital conservation and land management tool. 

Roger Draycott explains why it is important that guns become 'conscientious consumers' and find out what the shoot they are considering buying a day at is doing for wildlife.

The last few days has seen a worrying development at Auchnerran. We have been monitoring badger numbers on the farm over the years and noticed a steady increase in their abundance and have recorded the occasional raid on a wader nest. But over the last week or so we have lost approx. two-thirds of our early lapwing nests (around 20) to badger predation.