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  • Monthly musings: hedging my bets!

    Written by Henrietta Appleton, Policy Officer (England) I have been delighted by the responses to my first monthly musings on hedges. Thank you. In my defence the initial blog was never intended to be all encompassing so I’m “hedging my bets” (pun intended!) and doing a follow up to acknowledge t...

  • Snaring and Public Perceptions after BBC Countryfile episode on snaring

    Written by GWCT’s Head of Education, Mike Swan Those who saw the feature on fox snaring on Sunday’s BBC Countryfile will be rightly annoyed that it did not show modern practice in a fair light. As far as I could see, every single ‘bad’ picture showed an animal caught by methods, and using snares...

  • The importance of soil health

    The GWCT has long argued for the importance of soil health – both on a farm level and as part of national policy. You might have seen a recent news story that reveals how just £284,000 – 0.41% of the environmental monitoring budget – is spent auditing the nation’s soil health. By comparison, £60....

  • New clean water ponds increase landscape scale aquatic biodiversity

    We have just seen the publication of another journal paper from the Water Friendly Farming project, our collaborative project with the Freshwater Habitats Trust. The paper demonstrates for the first time the effect of creating new ponds on the number of aquatic plant species present in the landsc...

  • Last chance to win an outstanding shoot day in Essex

    Don't miss your chance to win a drive on 4 outstanding shoots in Essex for a team of 9 guns. The expected bag is 150 birds with the day to be taken on Friday 16th October 2020. The four drives are: Hammonds Farm Charity Farm Great Hayes Farm Gardens Farm Tickets are £100 each and there are onl...

  • RSPB “rigorously neutral” on pheasants? A blog by Sir Jim Paice, GWCT Chairman

    By Sir Jim Paice, GWCT Chairman of Trustees Anyone in a position to make decisions really wants to see both sides of an argument and make their own judgement. A genuinely neutral position but with evidence pointing one way is far more constructive than an entrenched position. The last thing I wa...

  • Last chance to win a day's grouse shooting for 9 guns at Stags Fell – closes 30 September

    THIS RAFFLE IS NOW CLOSED - The winner is Edward Wrangham Don’t miss your chance to win a unique and rare opportunity for a team of 9 (double guns) to shoot grouse on Stags Fell, near Hawes, Upper Wensleydale. There are only a few of the 250 tickets still available and the draw closes on Wednesd...

  • GWCT in the media: Rabbit numbers provide a buzz on Radio 4’s ‘The Unbelievable Truth’

    As the shooting season draws to a close, those of you sending in returns to the National Gamebag Census will be doing a great service to the countryside. You are part of an important, long-running citizen science programme that not only informs policy such as General Licences, but also is covere...

  • A Predation Control Plan for the Shoot

    By Mike Swan, GWCT Head of Education Lets start by noting the words Predation Control rather than predator. In managing game and wildlife, how many predators you kill is of no great relevance; rather it is the predation that you prevent that matters. As a consequence, shooting odd random predato...

  • Badger predation at GWSDF Auchnerran

    By Dave Parish, Head of Scottish Lowland Research  Breeding waders have always done very well at Auchnerran: the farm supports large populations – of national significance in some cases – and the birds usually produce more than enough young than are needed to maintain the local population. The si...

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