| ADVISORY AND EDUCATION
150 years of practical experience by Roger Draycott,
Head of Advisory
Young shots enjoying a day at the Allerton Project shoot at Loddington. © Roger Draycott/GWCT
Jennie Stafford adds much-valued expertise to our efforts in the north of England. ‘Conservation through wise use’ is clear to see at Rotherfield Park and the Allerton Project.
Jennie Stafford (left) is working with farmers in the north of England. © Roger Draycott/GWCT
The primary role of the advisory department is to disseminate the Trust’s applied research to farmers, land managers and gamekeepers to help them conserve and enhance the wildlife and habitats in their care. The small but growing team of experi- enced advisors, all passionate about the conservation of our countryside and with a wide range of interests, have over 150 years experience of practical farmland conser- vation and game management advice between them. In 2016 we were delighted to welcome Jennie Stafford onto the team. Jennie is our new northern farmland biodiversity advisor. Jennie grew up on a farm in Northumberland and is an experienced farm conservation advisor having previously worked with FWAG and more recently as an independent advisor. Jennie is leading on a new partnership with the Duchy of Lancaster and Natural England. The aim of the project is to deliver landscape scale habitat improvement for wild pollinators and farm wildlife across the Duchy landholdings. This is one of a number of landscape-scale projects we are involved with and builds on our ‘Farmer Clusters’ – getting farmers working together over large areas and encouraging them to determine the conserva- tion priorities and approaches for themselves. There are now 49 Clusters with facilita- tors funded through Countryside Stewardship across England. GWCT advisors support several of these providing training events on a range of issues from grey partridge conservation and farmland bird identification to predation control for ground-nesting birds. We also provide technical advice helping farmers set up Clusters of their own. Demonstrating good practice in all aspects of game management is vital for shoots to fully realise the environmental benefits that we know good game manage- ment can deliver. The GWCT is fortunate to run two lowland demonstration shoots at the Allerton Project at Loddington in Leicestershire and at Rotherfield Park in Hampshire. The aim of the Allerton Project shoot is to show how a small to medium- scale released pheasant shoot with a part-time gamekeeper can provide quality sport alongside significant wildlife recovery. Under the stewardship of Matt Coupe the gamekeeper and Austin Weldon our central England advisor, songbirds are almost double the level they were in 1992 when the GWCT took on the Allerton Project. We now run a wide range of game management training days for gamekeepers and shoot managers at the Project to complement the wide range of existing courses. The aim of the shoot at Rotherfield Park Estate in Hampshire is to demonstrate
how to build up a wild grey partridge population from zero and recover the wild pheasant stock from a low level, while simultaneously providing exciting and testing sport based on a mix of wild and released cock pheasants. Malcolm Brockless runs the shoot and shoot days are co-hosted by Francis Buner who co-ordinates the scientific monitoring. Again, wildlife is flourishing and both shoots are great examples of ‘conser- vation through wise use’. All the shoot days at the Allerton Project and Rotherfield Park are auctioned at county events and the aim is to provide an enjoyable day’s shooting, with the emphasis on quality rather than quantity, to learn a little more about the GWCT and see first-hand our approach to game and wildlife management.
10 | GAME & WILDLIFE REVIEW 2016
www.gwct.org.uk
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