March

Over recent decades, availability of suitable barn owl nesting cavities has reduced primarily due to loss of large trees with hollows, and modernisation and enclosure of farm buildings. Providing nest boxes within or near to suitable habitat can help to increase breeding success and support local barn owl populations.

Check out the latest news from our GWCT Shoots.

Our Working For Wildlife initiative has shown just how important farmers can be to wildlife recovery.

The public consultation Interim Gamebird Release Licence in England - Defra - Citizen Space on proposals for an interim licensing regime for gamebird releasing and management on European Protected Sites closes on 15th March.

The use of pesticides is hotly debated, but arguments around it are often absolute and lack nuance. The government derogation for farmers to use the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam on sugar beet this year (dependent on evidence of potentially yield threatening levels of pests) created lots of headlines, plenty of outrage and, at the time of writing, 50,597 signatures to reverse the decision.

Last month we responded to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy‘s call for evidence on Greenhouse Gas Removals. With climate change high on the public agenda, it is important that we tackle it while ensuring livelihoods, food production and wildlife are part of the conversation.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support. Without you our finances would be in a far more precarious position than they currently are. Last year was tough for all of us, but your generosity and the sacrifices our staff have made mean we are able to to run an active programme of work in 2021.

The Guardian recently reported on a study by Dr Adam Pellegrini of Cambridge University that has highlighted that wildfires are impacting on the ability of forests to capture carbon due to changes in tree density and size. Given that trees are increasingly seen as a natural climate solution, the more we can understand the consequences of afforestation the better.