2020

It would appear the legal team at Defra are the real winners – they have avoided costly legal action and significant disruption to those providing the habitat that game management delivers.

With the lead ban becoming more and more apparent, W Horton & Sons have been working hard on a solution to the problem imposed on so many shots who own guns that are not steel proofed.

Without our usual fundraising activity, we are facing a £1.4m shortfall in our usual income across the year. Thankfully, you, our members and supporters, give us hope. We have been overwhelmed by your generosity at a difficult time for everyone.

GWCT is pleased to have helped provide scientific evidence to inform this issue, which shows that any negative impacts from game bird releasing are very localised to the release site, with positive impacts on habitats and other wildlife at both the local and landscape scale.

We take a closer look at three documents that have been published recently that review the ecological effects of pheasant and red-legged partridge releasing.

This year the Biometrics team has three students who are on placement here at the GWCT. Rachel Cook and George Scarisbrick from Bangor University will be working with the GIS team and moving to Wetlands during the fieldwork season in April; Ellie Raynor (from Manchester Metropolitan University) will be assisting with the EU-Interreg PARTRIDGE project for the entire year.