June

In early 2021 Dylan Roberts, our Head of Fisheries, wrote a blog on the reintroduction of beavers entitled “Environmental Engineer or a waterway menace?”.  With the launch of the Species Reintroduction Task Force and in particular calls for beavers to be released freely into the wild getting louder, we felt now was a good time to revisit this often-controversial subject. 

Hedgerows are an essential part of the English countryside. To help safeguard the hedgerows we currently have and promote their growth, Defra have launched a new consultation that focuses on establishing effective and proportionate regulations to protect them.

On Wednesday 21 June, our Scottish Head of Policy, Ross MacLeod, and Scottish Advisor, Dr Nick Hesford gave expert evidence to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee as they debated the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill.

GWCT are advising all shoots planning to release gamebirds on or within 500m of a Special Protection Area this summer to apply for a licence without delay. 

In recent weeks I have been revisiting the known causes of the declines seen in some of our bird species such as the Curlew, Lapwing and House Sparrow and so the recently published paper “Farmland practices are driving bird population decline across Europe” caught my eye.