2020

Curlew Country, which launches its webcam programme once again this week, has done an amazing job in getting boots on the ground – practical, hands-on working with farmers and land managers – to recover these much-loved birds that have almost disappeared from our countryside.

Countryside Correspondent Harry Shukman failed to mention that the scientific paper he was referring to actually found that any pressure to illegally kill predators was both rare and resisted by gamekeepers.

The students of GWCT 2019/20 have stepped up across the organisation to ensure business can run as smoothly as possible. Now dotted around the country, we are still working hard as ever to keep projects running, and some have even stayed onsite to ensure vital work can continue.

Across the country, whatever our circumstances, we all have a lot on our minds at the moment – health, employment and income, and very high levels of uncertainty in many areas. However, the GWCT must continue its fight for an evidence-based approach to conservation.

Everyone is worried about curlew in Wales – our breeding population has seen a 62 percent decline over the past 25 years.

Natural England has now started issuing decisions in relation to applications for individual bird control licences for those circumstances which are not covered by the General Licences issued by Defra in January.

Footage has emerged of Bradford Council cutting heather on Baildon Moor at a time when nesting is at its peak.

We respond to a recent article written by conservationist Mick Green, which attracted a lot of attention from both journalists and the conservation organisations he accused of ‘not delivering the product they are selling’.