The Upland Research Group of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust would like to invite you to their Northern England Grouse Seminar, which is to be held on February 28th 2023. Following the success of the event in spring 2020, the day will once again be held at the Cedar Court Hotel in Harrogate with a capacity for up to 300 delegates.
Tickets are £50 each, which will include refreshments and lunch on the day. If you are booking tickets for more than one person, you must provide us with details of all attendees or risk delayed or failed entry to the seminar. Please send enquiries and additional attendee details to Marie at mjewitt@gwct.org.uk.
Programme
- 9:15 Coffee and registration
- 10:00 Welcome and introduction. The Marquess of Downshire
- 10:10 Moorland management and ground-nesting birds: Evidence from multiple studies of how predator control and heather burning as components of grouse moor management can influence the abundance and breeding success of a suite of ground-nesting birds. Dr David Baines, GWCT
- 10:40 Merlin Magic: Are merlin nesting habitats and their prey abundance on grouse moors in northern England limited by heather management practices? Dr Philip Warren, GWCT
- 11:20 Short break
- 11:40 Langholm revisited – the retrospective application of adaptive management techniques to interpret changes in red grouse abundance: After a brief explanation of the principles of adaptive management, this talk explores how its techniques have been applied to the 28 years of published data from Langholm to help interpret the changes in red grouse abundance and identify the factors behind those changes. Dr Nicholas Aebischer, GWCT
- 12:10 The Hen Harrier in England: Working with land managers to ameliorate the conflict between hen harriers and red grouse. Stephen Murphy, Natural England
- 12:40 Discussion, questions and answers
- 13:00 Lunch
- 14:15 UK wildfire: predicting the danger and managing the risk: An overview of two major collaborative studies that are considering key aspects of wildfire mitigation and management. Prof. Nick Kettridge, University of Birmingham
- 14:45 Heather management – burning issues and cutting-edge science: An update on some of our latest research into the effects of burning or cutting heather over blanket bog. Dr Siân Whitehead, GWCT
- 15:15 Research Updates: Short updates from the team on current and future projects including heather beetle monitoring & management, future directions for black grouse, flubendazole resistance detection amongst strongyle worms, and factors influencing pre-breeding condition in hen grouse. GWCT Upland Team
- 15:45 Discussion, questions and answers
- 16:00 Close of seminar
You can download the full programme here (PDF).