Press Releases - 2015

The once-common wild grey partridge has been in steep decline over the past four decades. Although it is one of the UK’s most iconic farmland bird species, grey partridge numbers have plummeted by more than 80% and, tragically, because of habitat loss and a reduction in essential chick food insects, they have become locally extinct in many areas of the country.

The GWCT and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association will be jointly staging two Rat Control for Gamekeepers courses in September to allow their members to become fully qualified to continue using professional rodenticides.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is appealing to school pupils across the Perth and Kinross region to get busy with their paintbrushes and pencils – or indeed any other medium – and enter the annual GWCT schools art competition.

A new one-day course will allow gamekeepers to go on controlling rats using professional rodenticides after a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) deadline of 1 July 2016.

A new study published in Biological Conservation identifies that we need to rethink the type of special flowering crops that we grow to help our ailing bee populations.

A two-day clay shoot held at Warter Priory Estate in Yorkshire in June has raised over £80,000 to be split between the two organising charities, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

A unique partnership between an environmental research charity, an industry forum and a multi-national corporation has solved a major waste recycling problem for European agriculture. In recognition of this simple but extremely effective innovation the group was presented with a prestigious Environmental Leadership Award from the Chemical Industries Association last week.

The way we manage the land is changing. A new report highlights a way which is better for wildlife, crop production, soil and water, as well as people.

A ground-breaking new study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, which used hundreds of reared pheasant chicks as the model, could have invaluable implications for important wildlife reintroduction programmes in the future.

The United Nations has declared 2015 as the International Year of Soils with the aim of helping to raise awareness of why soils are important for food security and the environment. By its very nature without this essential element we would not be able to grow food, provide wildlife habitats, prevent flooding or have clean water.