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The use of the term “peatland burning” (or peatland fires or burning peat) is factually incorrect and misleading when used in conjunction with criticisms of grouse moor management.
Let’s be clear from the outset – moorland managers undertake controlled burning to manage heather and implicitly do...
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Today marks World Wildlife Day, the UN’s headline event for promoting ecology across the globe. This got me thinking. Many people I meet greet the fact I work for the GWCT with some form of reference to pheasants and partridges. That’s no surprise given that we have been the leading organisation ...
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By Matt Goodall, GWCT Cymru Advisor and Head of Education
On 16 May, final amendments were considered for the Agriculture (Wales) Bill in the Senedd. This bill outlines the Welsh Government’s proposal to prohibit the use of any snare (including licensed use) or other cable restraint. A previous b...
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By Andrew Gilruth, GWCT Director of Communications
Unless you hold this graph upside down, it’s a stunning success. However, last weekend a senior RSPB staff member repeatedly refused to acknowledge this achievement on social media.
The success is attributed to many factors, including the brood ...
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As 2020 draws to a close, it would be easy to only reflect on the challenges we have all faced. As a charity, times have not been easy and you will have seen that early in the lockdown, we forecast a £1.4m shortfall in income.
Despite that, we are still here, still undertaking cutting-edge resea...
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With the merlin gone for the winter, we have been busy in the uplands taking field measurements to understand what makes habitats suitable for nesting merlin. As merlin are specially protected, it is important that they are not disturbed while they are breeding, so we collect these measurements a...
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On Wednesday 21 June, our Scottish Head of Policy, Ross MacLeod, and Scottish Advisor, Dr Nick Hesford gave expert evidence to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee as they debated the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill. Following a broad discussion of a potential licensing schem...
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This month the Welsh Government has rejected amendments to the Agriculture (Wales) Bill to allow the licensed use of Humane Cable Restraints (HCRs) to protect breeding curlew. In response, Owen Williams, GWCT Chairman of Trustees, Wales, wrote the letter below to the Welsh Minister for Rural Affa...
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Former Defra minister and GWCT Chairman Sir Jim Paice set out the theme of the Trust’s annual game management conference, Game 24, in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, by making clear the risks for the shooting community of stalling on self-regulation. He said: “When people complain that shooting is tota...
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Recently a new study1 was published in Vet Record about badger culling and its relationship with the incidence of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). It was very quickly covered by the news, including BBC News2, The Independent3, Farmers Weekly4 and The Irish News5 and declared a “landmark study”, with th...
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