January

Whether or not to fund the management of species to protect another was the subject of a keen debate in the House of Lords on Thursday 25 January.

Training courses offered by GWCT Advisory Services are designed to help all land managers, including gamekeepers, understand and observe current legislation and best practice. On completion of each course, participants receive a GWCT certificate, which forms an important paper trail in the documentation of due diligence.

On Wednesday 24 January, Teresa Dent CBE was on a panel of experts giving their witness statements about the role of natural capital in the green economy. Teresa joined Minette Batters, President of the NFU, and Judicaelle Hammond, Director of Policy and Advice at the CLA.

The iDeer project wants to hear your views on wild deer! You are invited to complete our questionnaire, which will take approximately 10-15 minutes.

The GWCT-managed FAB project, with generous support from Pepsico and key input from NatureScot and Scottish Agronomy, aims to demonstrate how productive agriculture does not need to suffer whilst accommodating biodiversity.  

Whilst there was much to be positive about in the recent announcement by the Defra Secretary of State on the 2024 SFI offer in terms of its support for farming, we are disappointed that the opportunity was not taken to include measures in the ELMS to reduce predation pressure to facilitate species recovery.

Over the coming weeks we have three wonderful opportunities for gamekeepers and shoot managers to hone their skills and learn about the latest developments in the game shooting sector.

The new year marks four months into my placement with GWCT and there are plenty of highlights from my time in Scotland so far.

Fox-tagging research as part of the EU LIFE+ Waders for Real project sought to understand how many foxes reside within wet grassland areas in the Avon Valley, and where foxes spend their time, to inform predation management strategies.

Finding myself in ownership of four Canada Geese that no one else wanted at a shoot ‘share out’ in SW Scotland a few days ago, I was reminded of this recipe which I wrote back in January 2010. If you read on you will see that I feared I was ‘letting the cat out of the bag’, but clearly, I was wrong