Blogs

The low number of juvenile salmon (called smolts) leaving the River Frome in Dorset for their feeding grounds in the North Atlantic in the spring of 2017 (called the smolt run) quantified by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust in collaboration with Cefas and the Environment Agency is likely to result in a decline in the numbers of adult salmon returning to our rivers in the next few years.

Like most organisations, we have our own press people but if you would be interested in speaking on air or even filmed in a BBC studio, why not let us know? The next time they ask to speak to someone with your experience, where you are, we can let you know – the choice is then yours.

Guest blog by Richard Negus, a GWCT member who is running the Northumberland Coastal Path Marathon in aid of our curlew appeal.

On a much-needed sunny day in Aberdeenshire recently, GWSDF Auchnerran welcomed Graeme Dey MSP, convenor of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee (ECCLRC); and Andrew Proudfoot, senior assistant clerk to the committee.

New wader count training courses that GWCT Scotland is rolling out across the country stem from a working partnership encouraged by Working for Waders, a Moorland Forum initiative. The wader counts help the farmers, keepers and land managers to carry out the monitoring themselves.

At the end of July, GWSDF Auchnerran hosted a meeting with a group of wildlife managers to discuss the LIFE Laser Fence project and its applicability to a variety of situations. The Laser Fence project is a partnership between several European organisations, led by Liverpool John Moores University, and is investigating the general question: can laser technology be used to scare mammals away from designated areas?

Author Brian P. Martin is writing a third edition of his book “The Great Shoots – Britain’s Best Past and Present”, published by Quiller, and would be grateful for a little help.

GWCT staff enjoyed a very successful stint at the annual celebration of all things rural at this year’s BBC Countryfile Live last week (3rd – 6th August).

Peter Thompson looks at the launch of a new super Cluster after the success of the Farmer Clusters, where working together, farmers can deliver more for wildlife on a much bigger scale.

As Chris Packham climbed up on the Ifor Williams flatbed trailer the sky dramatically darkened. The stage, at the RSPB’s Rainham Marsh reserve in Kent, was set for another fire and brimstone Hen Harrier day ‘address’.