GWCT News Blog

Director of Advisory & Education Dr Roger Draycott made a guest appearance on the Natural History Museum’s ‘Wild Crime’ podcast this week.

This September we're encouraging our members and supporters to take part in the GWCT Walk for Wildlife in order to help raise vital funds for our important conservation work. Find out how you can get involved here.

We tend to think of grass as rather barren, and even hostile, in terms of its value to game and shooting. But, its not so long ago that our management and use of grass offered a living for a range of birds some of which have all but gone from the modern countryside.

With the general licence upheaval in 2019, it became rapidly obvious that combining the expertise of the different organisations could be a real strength on key issues.

Our new gamekeeper training courses are based on learning objectives that have been devised by the British Veterinary Association (BVA) in collaboration with other game sector organisations and game vets, including members of the St David’s Game Bird Services team. 

With the gamebird releasing season in full swing, the GWCT is reminding all game managers operating on or within 500m of EU protected sites of the new requirement to inform Natural England the number of gamebirds released and their location Details of any relevant SSSI consent under which the activity is operating is also required.

Defra has launched a consultation and we would love to hear your views before we respond.

As the Scottish Government has declared that muirburn will only be permitted under licence from NatureScot, last year we launched our Muirburn Advisory Service to support estates in developing and monitoring simple, user-friendly muirburn plans.

Each development stage of a barn owl chick is crucial to increase their chances of successfully fledging, so we take this opportunity to look back at these important stages before the chicks in the Owl Box LIVE nest start to fledge.

The lessons from America on wildfire suppression are real and urgent. There is a significant policy gap in the assertions made by the IUCN, Climate Change Committee, RSPB and others that managed burning on peatland must be stopped.