by Irene Johnston, GWCT Scotland
The GWCT Scotland team
February may be the shortest month of the year but we've certainly packed in a lot up here in the GWCT Scotland office. Take a quick look at what we've been up to:
Advisory
- Undertook an Advisory visit for a new client in Fife with the primary focus on wild grey partridge management.
- Conducted an Advisory visit in Perthshire for a new client wishing to improve game woodlands to help arrest and reverse declining pheasant returns.
- Visited a new client in Aberdeenshire wanting to expand existing pheasant shoot.
- Lead a farm and shoot walk in East Lothian attended by Glasgow University students.
- Booked 92 people into March/April rodenticide courses (4 out of 5 venues fully booked).
- Announced March dates for corvid control/tunnel trapping and muirburn/lamping courses.
- Organised and attended GWCT Farmland Bird ID day in Kinross-shire.
- Gave on-site management advice to our Scottish Grey Partridge Recovery Project farms in Midlothian.
Fundraising & Events
- Delivered a presentation at a fundraising dinner in aid of grey partridge research in Fife.
- Chaired the GWCT Scottish Game Fair Committee meeting
- Were delighted by the Scottish Auction committee’s progress in getting exciting sporting lots for the Prestonfield Auction in May.
- Planned the delivery of the Grass to Grouse display for the Scottish Game Fair.
Policy & Research
- Attended the Edinburgh Agricultural Economics Discussion Circle Seminar on grouse moor management.
- Attended the Ochil Hill Wild Mammal Group meeting.
- Provided the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs, Environment and Climate Change Committee with a briefing on Sporting Rates for stage 2 of the Land Reform Bill.
- Held a grey partridge conservation policy meeting.
- Attended farmers’ meeting in Borders to discuss cover crops and Greening options in the arable rotation.
- Briefed local Deeside councillors on moorland management in Aboyne.
- Attended the launch of the Understanding Predation report.
- Attended a meeting in Brussels to finalise details of a bid for European funding for a major new Grey Partridge project.
- Discussed a new project investigating Grey Partridge population genetics with the Zoological Society of Scotland.
- Contributed to the SNH-led discussions over site access for national bird monitoring surveys.
- Planned our engagement with Hen Harrier Brood Management Scheme and Translocation Committees.
- Discussed the establishment of a new Partridge Group in Scotland.
- Began exploring the potential for a new collaboration with Napier University, Edinburgh.
Communications
- Wrote a letter to The Courier responding to an article on Beavers.
- Wrote an article for Friends of the Scotsman on flooding management.
- Wrote an article for Farming Scotland on flooding management.
- Responded to the Land Use Strategy Consultation.Planned a future Land Business Scotland magazine article on the new Scottish Demontsration Farm.
- Met the new Editor of Press & Journal Agriculture Section at our Scottish Demonstration Farm.
- Started preparing a major report on the first five years of our work with Whitburgh Farms.